Ringing In the New Year
by Tobiwolf13
Summary: Clark and Chloe celebrate New Year's Eve in four different cities from New York to L.A. and romance ensues.
1. Chapter 1

Clark patted Shelby once more on the head. The older golden retriever looked over at him and shifted a little on his side, burrowing deeper into the sofa cushions. Clearly, the dog was more interested in catching up on his sleep than celebrating the New Year. Clark could relate. He'd rather be sleeping too. Of course, going to bed at nine o'clock on New Year's Eve would be too embarrassing to admit. He could just hear the jokes that Lois would make at his expense if she ever heard something like that. Something about farmboys and Amish tendencies most likely. Hell, he wouldn't put it above Chloe, Miss Metropolis herself, not to rag him for his homebody tendencies. Of course, he did have an excuse to be a homebody. It's not like he had anywhere to go.

The Metropolis Museum of Modern Art was hosting its annual gala and the Who's Who list of Kansas was there, including his mother, Lex and Lana, and Oliver and Lois. At least fate had been kind enough to spare him from worrying about whom his mother would be kissing at midnight that night. Lionel had had to rush to Singapore for a last minute merger or acquisition or some business thing that Clark really didn't understand or care about. All he knew was that Lionel Luthor was nowhere near his mom and that could only be a good thing. Having him sit at the table for Thanksgiving dinner or having to keep the cashmere sweater he'd gotten from the billionaire for Christmas was bad enough. Thinking about him kissing his mom…well it made him want to sign up for permanent bodyguard duty with his mom and never let her out of his sight.

Chloe, since she wasn't actively a state senator, a billionaire, or the arm candy of a billionaire, (and now that Clark thought about it, he really did have a lot of influential friends and family members), wasn't at the gala either. However, she was supposed to be staying over at Jimmy Olsen's house for a New Year's Eve date. Last year, she'd come over and they'd spent the night watching cheesy eighties movies and eating way too much junk food. (For such a little thing, Chloe could sure suck down the popcorn.) Hell, he'd even been in such a good mood last year that he'd hardly noticed Lois's inclusion and running commentary.

This year he was painfully lonely. It wasn't that he didn't love Shelby. He did. It's just that the golden retriever wasn't exactly the best conversationalist at least as far as English was concerned. If barking meant anything Clark sure as hell couldn't understand it. Wait, better not to even think about that because next thing he knew he'd be able to speak barkanese, like some Kryptonian Dr. Dolittle. Definitely, in his life it was better not to wonder about the what if's.

Still, that left him alone in the house with a South Park marathon and absolutely nothing to do. He really needed more friends or at least to get off the farm more than once every three days.

Clark reached over to scratch behind Shelby's ears. The dog sat up, sniffed, and jumped off the couch before he'd reached the top of his head. Apparently, Shelby had had his fill of bonding time.

"Great, just great." Clark muttered to himself. "Even you don't want to hang out with me." He frowned as the dog made his way over to his food bowl. "Next time, I'm getting a Labrador." Shelby just snorted and began chowing down on Kibbles and Bits.

"Well, a good idea is a good idea," he mused as he stood up and walked toward the kitchen cabinets. He had half a can of Pringles in his hand when his cell phone rang. He blurred across the living room so fast to reach his jacket pocket that his wake pulled the calendar off the wall. Reaching into his jacket, he yanked open his cell. "Hello?"

"Clark?"

He blinked. He had figured maybe it was his mom calling to check up on him, but this was a pleasant surprise. "Chloe? What do you want?"

Laughter bubbled over the line. "Well with a friendly opening like that, I'm glad I called."

"Sorry. It's just…I didn't think you'd be calling me tonight. What about Jimmy?"

"James ended up with a last minute assignment. Apparently the senior photography editor offered him a bribe. He wanted the photo archives organized by the end of the year and was lacking the manpower."

Clark stifled a snicker at a sentence that attributed Jimmy Olsen with any type of manpower. "And he asked Jimmy in?"

"It's was fair trade. Jimmy does over time with the filing and the editor promised him that one edition of the Planet next week would feature one of his photos in the A section."

"So career advancement won out over a romantic evening out in Metropolis?"

"Exactly." Chloe's tone was still bright and perky for her, but Clark could just imagine the trouble Jimmy Olsen would be in tomorrow morning. Chloe'd been looking forward to the evening for weeks, going on about how Jimmy had managed to get reservations at the fairly exclusive Le Petit Fleur. How a lowly intern at the Planet had managed that, Clark would never know. Maybe he'd been taking some covert photos of health code violations. He had to give Jimmy credit. The guy was very adept at getting shots of people doing things under the table or less than legal. Too bad he wasn't as skilled yet at getting the proof to go with the photos. Anyway, Jimmy had been promising a romantic evening to Chloe for a month, as a way to make up for not being able to spend Thanksgiving with her.

Now, it looked like Chloe was going to be having as eventful an evening as Clark. "So what are your plans now, Chlo?"

"See, that's where I was hoping you'd come in." Chloe said, her tone brightening even further.

Uh-oh. He recognized that tone. That was the tone that convinced him to break into LuthorCorp owned properties and to track down meteor mutants. She could convince him to do almost anything when she talked like that. Idly, he wondered if she'd ever let it go to her head that she basically had control over the most powerful man on the planet. "What do you want?"

"I was hoping you'd like to rescue a girl from a Twilight Zone marathon with her dad."

"I thought your dad was more of a Comedy Central guy."

Chloe sighed loudly over the line. "He has hidden depths and I get enough meteor mutant drama not to need to get my weird and unusual from Rod Serling."

"You know," Clark said, shifting his phone from his left to right side and wandering back toward the couch, "I'd really like to hang out, but I have other plans. Things I need to be catching up on. I mean, how do you know that I don't have a bunch of beautiful girls waiting for me up in the loft or something?" Just then Cartman farted loud enough for even Chloe to hear it on the other end. Clark cringed.

"You're watching South Park and hanging out with your dog. Come on. Hurry on up and I promise not to hold your lack of social life against you."

"You are my social life."

"Then you're a lucky guy. Come on, I'm timing you. One…two…"

Well he always did rise to a challenge. He ran as fast as he could all the way to Gabe Sullivan's loft in downtown Metropolis. As he knocked on the door, he could already hear Chloe reaching five on the phone. He pounded on the door, lightly enough of course not to dent anything, and smiled broadly when Mr. Sullivan answered it. His eyes widened in surprise when he caught sight of Clark but he smiled anyway and stood aside to usher the younger man into the apartment.

"Clark. It's good to see you. I thought you were in Smallville tonight."

"Well, mom was going to spend the night in one of the hotels downtown near the museum and the last time she came to Metropolis alone it didn't go so well, so I was just hanging out in the room waiting for her to come back." The lie rolled more easily off of his tongue than most. He'd had practice at it though. He'd spent most of last year coming up with reasons why he was conveniently near the Met U dorms in order to assuage Lana's suspicions. He was getting pretty good at explaining his almost constant presence in the Big Apricot.

"That's good son. It's nice to have you here and you have great timing. Chloe's schedule just opened up." Gabe gave Clark and exaggerated wink. Actually, thinking back on it, Gabe had given Clark a ton of not-so-subtle hints about Chloe's dating availability during high school. Only Helen Keller would have been able to miss the winks and nods. Or Clark. He'd been pretty self-involved in high school. Okay, to be honest, Clark was pretty self-involved most of the time, but he'd still never quite noticed the crush that Chloe'd had on him. Well, except for when she cursed him out at the end of sophomore year and that time with the cheerleading outfit.

He really missed that cheer leading outfit. Chloe the devoted cheerleader had been the star of several of his fantasies as of late. The other running star was Jimmy Olsen and all the ways he just had to leave Metropolis, Kansas, the United States or whatever, thus leaving a heart broken but receptive Chloe behind for comfort from her favorite and very willing best guy friend.

Yeah, Clark was a lot jealous of Jimmy Olsen and more than a bit petty. So sue him.

"Yeah, heh, funny about that. So she's in then?"

"Of course. I've been trying to get her into the Twilight Zone marathon. I think they're up to the one where Burgess Meredith breaks his glasses but they might have moved on to the one where Roddy MacDowall ends up in an alien zoo. Will you help me convince her to enjoy some real culture?"

Right, Clark really wanted to see that zoo episode. "Actually, I was coming by to see if Chloe wanted to come out with me. I figure there's got to be a restaurant or something open on New Year's in Metropolis."

Mr. Sullivan grinned up at him. "As long as you're not taking her back to the hotel, I'll be happy."

"Hotel?"

Mr. Sullivan quirked his head at him. "Yeah, the hotel you and your mom are staying at. The one you just mentioned. Are you okay Clark?"

Just because he was becoming better at coming up with lies didn't necessarily mean that he was getting better at keeping his cover stories straight. "Right, right. No, of course, not Mr. Sullivan. We'll be keeping to the public places." Clark tried to stop the flush that was creeping across his cheeks.

"Alright then." Mr. Sullivan pointed to the orange plaid sofa. "Sit on down, Clark. You know the house motto."

Clark chuckled and settled down on the slightly lumpy sofa. "Yeah, yeah 'Mi casa es su casa.'"

"Exactly. It's also the only Spanish he knows." Chloe said, coming out of the guestroom. Sidling down next to Clark, she leaned toward his ear and whispered. "You're late."

"Not fair. I had to knock first and make small talk. Travel took me three seconds like always."

"Maybe you're getting slower in your advanced age." She said, winking at him.

God, she looked a lot like her father when she did that. It was weird the things that were genetic. Clark smiled. "You're just jealous because my birthday's actually before the start of the new school year. Five months and I'm legal to drink."

Her voice still quiet enough just for him to hear she added, "Which would mean a lot if you could actually get drunk. Anyway, I'm just pointing out that I think you weren't putting in the full effort into your sprint. Maybe it was just too many leftover Christmas cookies with Shelby."

"You know. I can always just leave."

She batted her eyelashes at him in a slightly passive aggressive move that he would have associated with Lana more than her. Still, it was cute. "You won't though because even my dad's apartment is way more exciting than the farm."

"So Brain, what are we going to do tonight?" Clark asked, raising the volume of his voice so that Mr. Sullivan could hear. Too much secret whispering would probably just give Chloe's dad the wrong idea anyway.

"Well, I was thinking we could do a night out on the town. Something fun and not stuffy. I mean who needed The Petit Fleur? New Year's is supposed to be more laid back isn't it?"

Clark was about to answer when Mr. Sullivan interrupted, a bowl overflowing with popcorn in his left hand. "Chloe are you sure it wouldn't be better if you just stayed here? I thought Jimmy, um, James promised that he'd call you from the Planet at midnight."

Chloe had the decency to blush slightly. "He's supposed to, but he's also going to be scanning into archives deep in the basement and the odds he'll even get reception are slim to none. Besides just because he's 'supposed to call' does not mean I have to be chained to the sofa. Come on daddy, you know I've spent every New Year's with Clark since we moved to Smallville."

Gabe bit his lip and sat himself down in between the two of them. Clearly, he wanted to say more about the nagging issue of Jimmy Olsen but stopped himself. Instead he turned to Clark and offered him some popcorn. "Sure you don't want to be part of my Sci Fi marathon?"

Clark shook his head. His life was a sci-fi marathon and he really didn't need the extra exposure, although he did appreciate the out Mr. Sullivan was offering. Chloe was mad and her father had figured out what he also had: there was just the slightest chance that Chloe was hanging out with Clark so that she could make Jimmy jealous. Normally, Clark would be the first to say that Chloe wasn't that kind of girl. Of course, he also knew from personal experience how spiteful she could be especially when she'd been stood up.

To be honest, he wasn't too broken up about being Chloe's revenge date. Not if it meant that he got to spend New Year's Eve with her when Jimmy Olsen was going through dusty newspaper clippings. Still Mr. Sullivan didn't seem to be too happy about how things were working out. However, the best part about Chloe's dad, one of the reasons Clark had always liked him so much, is that he trusted Chloe to make a lot of her own decisions. Gave her a lot of autonomy. Apparently Chloe Sullivan would have to learn to juggle "her boys" on her own.

"Thanks again but no thanks. I was thinking Chloe and I would head downtown. The LuthorCorp Plaza is hosting a fireworks spectacular and it would be neat to watch it. I promise to have her back in by 12:30."

Chloe gave her father a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. "Tape the episode with William Shatner and the thing on the plane if it comes on. That one's priceless if only for the terrible acting." Hopping up, she reached over for Clark's arm and started yanking on it.

He rolled his eyes and let her "pull" him up off the sofa. Granted, even if he weren't Kryptonian, there was no way Chloe would have been able to pull him up. He was just letting her avoid the fun of shoulder dislocation. "Hmmph. Real gentle there, Chlo."

"I try. We'll be back in no time, Dad." She said practically flying out the door of the apartment. Looking over her shoulder, she glared at Clark. "Are you coming?"

He rolled his eyes. "I'll meet you outside in a sec." Turning back to Mr. Sullivan he added. "I'll take good care of her."

In between mouthfuls of popcorn, the other man added. "I don't have any doubt that you will." He chuckled. "Good luck keeping up with her. She's been eating chocolate non-stop since James called and she's more hyperactive than I've seen her in months." He shook his head. "She reminds me of her mom when she gets this worked up. Never could quite keep up with her."

"I'll keep that in mind. Hey, um, if they have the episode with the little kid who can make anything happen with his thoughts, you'd tape that for me, wouldn't you?"

" 'It's a Wonderful Life?' Be happy to. I knew I'd make a sci-fi fan out of you yet."

Clark chuckled before he stepped out the door. "You have no idea."

When Clark stepped out onto the porch steps, he didn't see Chloe right away. In fact, after scanning several of the buildings across the street with X-ray vision, he still hadn't caught sight of her. Grinning to himself, he made his way down the steps and leaned against the lamp post. "You know, if you're not going to come on out, I can always head back to Smallville. Shelby and I were really catching up on our quality time."

Then under his breath, he counted down to himself. "Three, two, one." Casting a glance around the block just to make sure no one was watching, Clark blurred into superspeed and looped around a now seemingly slow motion Chloe. He stopped behind her, waited for her to stop and do a doubled take when she realized he was gone, and then reached out to tickle her ribs. "Gotcha."

"Damn it!" She swore in between fits of giggles. "I thought I had you."

"Did not. I could have heard you coming from three miles away."

She sniffed. "Next time I'll just work on surprising Shelby." She laughed again and swatted lightly at his hands. "You can stop now."

He backed away and held his hands up for her to see. "I've desisted." He quirked his head at her. "So exactly how much chocolate have you had tonight?"

"I might have finished out the contents of my Christmas stocking, plus like ten Oreos. Why?"

"I don't think I've seen you quite this spunky in ages. Even Frappaccinos don't seem to do it."

She shrugged. "It's a combination of chocolate, stress, and end of the year madness. So, where do you want to go?"

He checked his watch. It was just past ten. "I think we could still catch a late movie before we hit the fireworks."

"We could do that, but I was thinking of something a little bit more interesting."

"I'm not investigating anything with you tonight."

"Please. I'm not the one all about work tonight. I was going to say though, that it's already 11 pm in New York."

"And since we live in Metropolis that applies to us how?"

"Why can't we go?"

Clark blinked. Apparently Chloe had been hitting the Schnapps or something else without her father noticing. She wasn't suggesting what he thought she was. "We, um, we just can't."

She frowned. "Come on, Clark. When's the last time you a) had any fun and b) used your abilities for anything besides farm chores and stopping meteor mutants?"

Okay, granted he hadn't done anything in the last year or so but work on the farm and take time out to stop Zod and whoever else the Phantom Zone decided to throw at him. Still it didn't mean he should run all the way to New York. With Chloe. "Chloe, you've got to be kidding. I can't just do that."

"Why not?" He squinted at her stomach and her frown deepened. "Are you X-raying me?"

"Just double checking for parasites. This doesn't sound like you."

She gripped the lamp post and spun around it. "Maybe I'm tired of butting my head into a brick wall."

"Excuse me?"

She sighed and looked up at him, her face serious. "I've been trying everything I can think of to help get you out of your self-imposed exile on the farm. I know it's hard. It's not the same but after my mom left I refused to even go to kindergarten for a month. It sucks and you don't want to go on with your life and you feel like you're responsible, even if, in my opinion it's all pretty much Jor-El's fault. You've exiled yourself to the farm."

"I have not---"

"No, you have. If it weren't for me and weirdly enough Lois's job as your mom's chief of staff, you wouldn't even see kids your own age. You're allowed to have fun. Your dad wouldn't have wanted you to mope forever."

"But he'd want me to take care of the farm."

"And maybe there's a way to do both and not put your entire life on hold. Besides, I'm not asking you to run away to Metropolis and start an internship at the Planet or to even start back to Central Kansas. I'm just saying that you can have fun with your abilities for one night. It's not like sometime during the next week some Wall of Weird reject won't show up to make trouble or you still won't have to do hours of farm chores. Everyone's allowed to have some fun."

Clark was beginning to see why Chloe and Bart had seemed to hit it off when he'd visited Smallville. Of course Chloe wasn't an advocate of grand theft of objects de art like the impulsive teen, but she appreciated fun a lot more than Clark did. Of course, one did have to keep in mind that her idea of fun included all-nighters at the DP. "Alright, Chlo, so where exactly did you have in mind?"

"You ever been to China Town?"

Apparently China Town was not the hotspot of activity in New York on New Year's Eve. Clark figured that had to do with the fact that the Chinese New Year wasn't for another six weeks. It could also be because the main party action and presumably the literal acres' worth of drunk people had all made their way to Times Square. Either way, it was just him and Chloe as they made their way down the quiet street.

"You know you were right. This is so much more exciting than hanging out with your father."

"Oh Ye of little faith. We'll be heading down to Times Square soon enough. It's just that there's a restaurant here that Uncle Sam took me and Dad to when we visited him once in New York. It's great and the owners have this slavish devotion to capitalism. They like never close."

"I thought you were hopped up on chocolate?"

"I am, but if I'm going to make it through the night, I'm going to need more nourishment than that. Besides, I bet you haven't eaten yet either."

Clark thought about the half eaten canister of Pringles still on the counter in Smallville. No, he hadn't exactly gotten around to a full meal yet either. "Alright then," he said checking his watch. "But we only have fifty-five minutes until midnight."

"We'd have longer if some people just listened to me." Chloe riposted, turning to her left and stepping through the doorway of a brightly lit restaurant. Clark sighed and ducked under the low-hanging transom. Immediately the scent of noodles and stir-fired vegetables assaulted his senses and he heard his own stomach growl.

Chloe grinned. "Doesn't Martha feed you anymore farmboy?"

"You know," Clark said, sliding into the other side of the booth, "Contrary to popular belief, I can actually take care of myself."

"Please. Without me and your mom, you'd be totally lost and you know it." Chloe was smirking when she said it but the words rang uncomfortably true. Even though he and Lois had managed to eek out some sort of détente or maybe even an uneasy friendship, his whole social life pretty much revolved around Chloe and his mom. Oh, and Shelby. Yup, his New Year's resolution was to make new friends, particularly guy friends. Guy friends who weren't also billionaires with wonky moral codes. There had to be some just normal guys hanging around Smallville. Didn't there?

"I would not be. I made myself dinner and everything tonight."

Chloe's smirk widened. "And what did you make?"

"Half a bowl of popcorn and some potato chips. Don't tell my mom, she'd kill me."

"Not possible." Chloe deadpanned around a mouthful of crunchy noodles. "Besides, I though by now your mom would have taught you to cook."

"She has. I'm not as good as it as she is."

"There are chefs in four star restaurants that aren't as good as she is." The waitress came by and offered out the menus but Chloe shook her head. "Number 14 please with two sets of chopsticks." The waitress arched an eyebrow at Clark but said nothing and hurried back to the kitchen.

"Just how many times have you been here?"

"Couple or five. My dad travels on business more than you think, especially now."

"And why was the waitress giving me the evil eye?"

"It was an amused look."

"Chloe, what exactly did you order?"

Her insufferable smirk widened so much he thought it would split her face in two. "Are you scared? Come on I figure you have to have a stomach of steel to match the rest of you."

Clark shoved a handful of crunchy noodles into his mouth. "Just because I can withstand whatever, doesn't mean I'd actually eat it." He swallowed. "It's not like monkey's brains or something is it?"

"Please this is a Vietnamese restaurant and that's a Cantonese dish. Why? Would you be interested if I could get it?"

"I think the international exposure via Lois and the General has done some serious damage. If it's not a cow, pig, or chicken, I really don't want to eat it."

"Trust me, you'll like this." Chloe said, grinning broadly as the waitress returned with a steaming concoction for them to try. She set the plate down in front of them and Clark thanked her when she handed him his chopsticks. He poked cautiously at the collection of steamed snow peas, water chestnuts, green beans, and mushrooms.

"This doesn't look so bad. Um, it's a little light on the meat but at least mom would agree it's nice and healthy."

"No. Wait. You haven't seen the best part." Chloe said lifting up the top of the ornately carved lacquer bowl at the center of the platter. "This is the real treat."

Clark blinked and squinted down at what he'd first mistaken for chicken wings. Lying in the bowl was a collection of lightly fried limbs. Gulping, Clark X-rayed the mystery meat. Most of it looked like a chicken leg, longer and leaner of course, except for the bottom section. The section that ended in flippers. He was pretty sure his face was somewhere in between green and bright yellow. "Ah, Chlo."

"Frogs' legs." She said, picking one up with her chopsticks and taking a huge bite. "They're really good, taste just like chicken."

"Then why aren't we eating chicken."

"Not exotic enough." Chloe said as if it should have been obvious to him. He hesitated still and poked one of the legs with his own chopstick. Chloe rolled her eyes and hit him lightly on the hand, mostly in the interest of keeping her own utensil in one piece. "Come on. If Pete were here, he'd totally dare you to eat it. Where's your manly pride."

"They're frogs."

"So?"

"Pete and I used to dare Greg Arkin to shove the pond frogs down his overalls when we were in first grade. I don't eat things you can put down your pants."

"You may want to rethink how you just said that."

Clark blanched. "You know what I mean. There is no way that I am---" And just like that Chloe shoved a big bite of the stuff in his mouth. He really needed to get more sleep. First Shelby had bested him, then Chloe. Clearly his reflexes weren't working up to super snuff. Deciding spitting the stuff out on the table was just not an option for polite society (and Chloe), Clark started chewing it. To his surprise and mild annoyance, he found that Chloe hadn't exaggerated. It did taste just like chicken.

"Hey, you were right."

"Don't sound so surprised. I usually am."

The rest of the meal passed in comfortable silence. Usually Chloe talked a mile a minute but the slightly tough main course required extra chewing and both of them were more than content to focus their attention on the meal at hand. Finally, the pile of frogs' legs had been decimated, leaving behind two fortune cookies. Chloe tossed him his and he caught it effortlessly. Heck, considering he hadn't inadvertently crushed it, he was even on a role.

"Okay. I'll go first." She said, unwrapping the confection and cracking it open. "You know the fortune cookie rules."

"Sure we've only played this game every time with Chinese take out since sophomore year."

"Just checking. Alright," she said bracing herself. "Here comes the wisdom of ancient Vietnam." She started to read it out loud but stopped and read to herself instead, her head quirked to the left. "Uh."

"Uh. That's not fair. You need to actually read it out loud for the rest of us to hear. Telepathy's not one of my powers, Chlo."

"And can I mention how thankful I am for that one. Best friends should just not be that close. Okay," she said, her cheeks flushing red, "But it's a stupid piece of mass-marketed paper that has as much meaning as one of those stupid candy hearts."

That couldn't be good. "So what exactly does it say?"

"'You will find happiness with a new love.'"

Clark blinked and felt his heart beat speed up a little. Well he was definitely going to track down the writer of that source of sage yet pithy advice and gift him with free milk for life from the Kent farms. "Heh, so you're saying---"

"Yeah, yeah. You will find happiness with a new love in bed."

"Do Jimmy and his can of whip cream know that?"

Cookie fragments flew at his head impressively fast. Chloe definitely didn't throw like a girl, must have been another thing she picked up from Lois and the General. Mr. Sullivan was a great guy but Clark seriously doubted he'd been an athlete in high school. Clark reached up quickly and grabbed each of the flying sections with little trouble. "Hey. I'm just passing on what I heard from Javier."

"He knows nothing."

Judging by the way her heart had just sped up, Clark was willing to wager that Javier knew quite a lot. "Uh-huh. Look," he said, snapping open his own cookie. "If this one says 'Stick with your wife,' we know that your favorite restaurant has just stolen its baked dessert advice from The Simpsons."

"So," Chloe asked, arching an eyebrow, "What does yours say?"

"'Never fail to take an open opportunity.'"

"In bed."

"Naturally. Okay, so they didn't actually steal from The Simpsons but like they say, desserts aren't always right."

"But they are so tasty," Chloe said yanking his cookie fragments out of his hands.

"Hey! Those were mine. You threw yours away."

"And you totally caught them, which, if the restaurant had actually had patrons in it, you wouldn't have wanted to do."

"What about all that talk about having fun with my abilities?"

Chloe crunched loudly on the last of his fortune cookie. "It doesn't count when it takes away my dessert. Come on," she said, hopping up. "We only have ten minutes left."

"And if we had to catch a cab that might mean something."

"Still, do you want to miss the ball drop? It's the best!"

"So awkward fortunes forgotten?"

"Totally. I won't live my life based on the wisdom of sugary goodness."

After they paid their bill, the two of them snuck into the nearest alley. It wasn't like there were a lot of---okay any---people milling around but Chloe was really trying to get him into the habit of practicing some discretion. He'd been a bit cavalier about just blurring off in the middle of the Daily Planet and she'd been ragging on him about it. According to her, even the reporters on the obituary beat weren't going to fail to notice his disappearing acts forever. Still, it wasn't like Clark wanted to be huddled in an abandoned alley in the middle of New York City. The way Chloe's eyes gleamed though, it made him think that she would duck into an alley in the middle of the night in Metropolis for a story or whatever plausible reason. She was a bit reckless like that, even if she didn't have him with her.

Wrapping his arms around her he nodded. "Are you ready, Chlo?"

"Mostly. Did I mention how disorienting the whole thing is?"

"You asked." He frowned. "You were a little wobbly last time. You aren't going to Ralph or anything are you?"

"Please." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Let's hit it."

In seconds they were standing in the middle of Times Square and Clark had a new appreciating for the term "huddled masses." People were everywhere, surging around the both of them, pushing into him. It was overwhelming. Chloe was even more excited, tugging on his hand and muttering something about getting above the crowd so they'd have a better angle for the ball drop.

"Come on." She said and he swore she stamped her feet when she did it. "There's a platform on the other side. We can't all be six four, you know."

"Three." He said absentmindedly lurching forward a bit with her tug. "You know, there's about five thousand people between us and that mythical platform."

"Oh, it exists. Besides, though I'm little I'm fierce. Everyone's going to let me through if they know what's good for them."

Clark kept her hand clutched tightly to his. There was no way he was going to lose her in the middle of this mob scene. "Chloe, slow down a little."

"But we only have…" She looked down at the wrist he wasn't holding. "…five minutes."

"Chloe, I can't just go around bumping into people. It takes a little, um, effort."

She blinked. "Oh. I'm sorry I was so excited I forgot."

"No, it's fine," he said, slipping around a couple engaged in something he was pretty sure you weren't supposed to do on a street corner in plain view of the entire borough of Manhattan. "I just don't want to plow into anyone."

"Hospitalizations for anything but alcohol poisoning would be suspicious, agreed." She grinned up at him. "Come on. You'll just have to follow me and think agile thoughts. Those of us who can't just run through walls get by by being sneaking instead."

Clark gritted his teeth and let Chloe lead him up, around, and through the crowds of people. He kept muttering sorry hoping that he hadn't managed to step on anyone's shoes. Also he was hoping that the puddles he sloshed through were just spilled champagne. He didn't want to know what else could be on the ground in Times Square. Finally, when he felt like he'd worked his way through every other person on the planet, they'd reached Chloe's vaulted platform. It was about five feet off the ground, but gave enough leeway that she'd actually be able to see something. It was crowded, which was a given, but it still had enough space for them to slip through.

Chloe reached up and started pulling herself up onto the railings. "Clark, a little help here."

"Um…" he sputtered. Chloe was clinging to the side railing and he was left staring down at her, well, derriere. Briefly, Clark flashed back to riding in the back seat of Pete's car with his hands wrapped around that particular part of her. There were a lot of days he was thankful that he got to remember what he did when high on red K. Okay, he'd prefer if the whole summer in Metropolis stayed a blur. But making out hot and heavy with Chloe? That was something he still enjoyed very much. Hell, staring at his best friend's ample assets, he realized he'd very much want to recreate that experience.

"Clark!"

"Um, what?" He gulped, reminding himself that Chloe wasn't telepathic either. Of course, with the glare she was focusing on him from over her shoulder, he was having a hard time convincing himself it was true.

"A little push here. Come on, we have less than two minutes."

"A push?" Great he practically squeaked that last part.

"You know, put your hands on your hips and hoist me over? Am I speaking French here?"

Nope. She was not speaking French. French he understood or at least well enough to get a B at Smallville High. This was his very close yet still platonic friend asking him to put his hands on her ass. "Are you sure?"

Chloe gripped the handrails harder and gritted through her teeth. "Come on, would you give a boost already. It's not that big a deal."

"Alright." He said, placing his hands on either side of her hips and pushing her up all while trying to think very platonic thoughts. He had gotten as far as mucking out the stalls and baseball when he felt his eyes start to itch. Quickly, he finished pushing Chloe and heard her yelp when she fell over the other side.

"Oomph. Real smooth, Clark. Hey, are your eyes closed?"

(Why yes they're closed Chloe. You just asked me to put my hands on your ass and now I really don't want to be responsible for setting Times Square on fire.) Clark really wanted to say that, but she'd never let him live it down. Plus he wasn't a hundred percent sure he could say the word "ass" without having his voice break. "Yeah, dust."

He really needed to get better at lying because there was no way somebody who was invulnerable was going to close his eyes because of dust.

He could hear the smirk in her voice when she answered. "Right, are you good to open them again?"

He nodded. The itching had died down enough that he was certain he wouldn't flambé anything. However, he was also pretty sure if anyone looked him in the eyes, they'd be glowing red. Of course, most of the people around him were so inebriated that they wouldn't notice anyway. He opened his eyes and reached for the top run of the platform. Shrugging his shoulders he made a straight leap and landed effortlessly besides Chloe.

"Show off," she muttered.

Well, it wasn't exactly jumping up onto a moving missile. "Well, we can't all be five feet tall."

"Five four. The extra four inches make all the difference." She frowned. "Are you sure you're okay." She lowered her voice so only he could hear her. "Your eyes…"

"They're fine. Besides," he said glancing down at his watch. "There's only a minute to go. Do you think that any one is going to notice me?"

"No. I…did some girl in the crowd catch your fancy?"

Oh god. There was no way she knew what triggered his heat vision. There were just certain things you didn't share with your best friends. Even Pete had never asked exactly how he triggered that particular gift. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Uh-huh." She gave him her Mona Lisa smile. "Just look up. It's time."

Clark smiled, feeling the itching in his eyes recede even further. His eyes probably weren't even glowing anymore. He reached out and took Chloe's hand in his as he watched the ball descend. The glowing ball taking on a myriad of colors as it slipped down the pole.

He felt the excitement surging through the crowd and started screaming out loud with Chloe, trying his best to out shout her. He had the greater lung capacity, obviously, but Chloe was just naturally louder. "Five, four, three, two, one!"

"Happy New Year!" Chloe shouted loud enough to leave his ears ringing. Clark was a little surprised yet very happy to have a hundred and ten pounds of blonde reporter wrapping him up in a bear hug.

"Happy New Year." He answered looking down at her. He shifted his weight a bit and hunched lower, bringing his lips with in inches of hers.

"Clark, what are you doing?" Chloe asked, her voice hushed.

"Taking my opportunity." He replied, tracing his fingers over her left cheek, unconsciously mimicking how she'd touched him after their kiss in the Daily Planet. He leaned lower about to kiss her when the guy standing next to them threw up.

Only Clark's quick reflexes kept them from being covered in regurgitated champagne. "Well that's sort of a mood killer."

"Yeah," Chloe said, pushing out of his embrace. "You know…we still have three more time zones to hit and it's only getting closer to midnight in Metropolis."

"Right…um right." He said pulling apart as well. "You ready?"

"Sure," she said holding out her arm so he could get a grasp on her. "You don't think any one's going to notice when we're just not here, right?"

Clark looked to his left where the guy who interrupted their not-quite-kiss was still worshipping the porcelain gods. Too bad any toilets weren't actually around. "I think everyone else is preoccupied to say the least."

"Heh. You could land the black ship in the middle of this mess and people wouldn't notice unless it starts spouting Jack Daniels."

"Cute, Chlo." He said wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pointedly ignoring the itching in his eyes. "You ready?"

"And willing."

And then they were off.

"So you're sure you want to do this again?" Chloe asked, flinging herself down on Clark's bed.

"What?"

Chloe blew a stray piece of her bangs out of her eye. "It's just that I've never seen you do this without a good reason. There wouldn't be an ulterior motive for any of this."

Clark quirked his head. "Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know Lana."

"This plan has nothing to do with her."

"Okay, how about your mom?"

Clark bit his lip and started rummaging through the back of his closet. "Alright. So I might want to crash the gala because I just want my mom not to be alone at midnight."

"I really don't think your mom is the type to kiss some random captain of industry just because the clock chimes."

Flannel, flannel, denim. Come on, he had to have his tux stashed somewhere in the back of his closet. Granted, he hadn't worn it since senior prom, but it had to be in there somewhere. "I know. It's just that I don't want her to be alone. Besides, the gala has got to be more exciting than a random fireworks show."

"It's not random," Chloe said popping up off the bed, "It involves fire and pretty colors." She walked over next to him and poked him on the ribs. "Let me."

"You've never looked in my closet."

"No, but I bet I can find what you need faster than you can, X-ray vision or no."

"You know. When I say X-ray vision, most of the time it's literal so fabrics all sort of blend together."

"Point taken." She said, scooting around him and digging through his wardrobe. "God, it looks like you raided the Farmers R' Us or something."

"There's no such store."

"You'd think you could find the lone tux and touch of black in this whole mess…ah! Gotcha." Chloe yanked out the outfit in question and struggled valiantly to keep it from dragging on the ground. Even with the hanger held high above her head, the legs of the tux still dragged on the floor. She looked at the tux and then looked back to Clark and arched an eyebrow at him. "When's the last time you wore this?"

"Prom. You remember prom with all the fun body-snatching?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you ask?"

She handed the hanger over to him and smirked. He was beginning to really hate that look. Oddly enough it reminded him of Lois and he wasn't sure how he'd never noticed that before. "Well, it's just that you might have gained a little bit of weight since then."

He yanked the tux off the hanger before setting it down on the bed. "I have not."

"Maybe a little. I was just saying. It happens to the best of us. I probably couldn't wear my Spring Formal dress from freshman year."

"You know. Don't you have a formal outfit of your own to put on?"

She grinned at him. "Touche. It was just an observation. I'm sure it'll be fine. Maybe an optical illusion of all that flannel. The Kryptonian metabolism probably won't even let you gain weight."

Damn straight. He rummaged through his sock drawer, looking for his bow tie and succeeded in finding both it and a pair of almost matching socks. He was pretty sure they were both black but even his eyes couldn't tell the difference between navy blue and black. That was a girl thing. "Chlo, if you'd just step outside for a sec, literally, and I'll be ready."

She rolled her eyes. "You know. You could dress right in front of me and since my eyes don't work at superspeed I'd never see anything anyway."

"It's called modesty. Come on." He said shooing her toward the door.

"Alright, but hurry up. I still have to grab my dress and the press passes from The Talon." She said ambling out of the room.

Ten minutes later, they were both passing through the entrance hall at the Metropolis Museum of Modern Art. Unfortunately Chloe had to dress at normal human speed. Clark had, however, been able to convince Chloe that her hair looked fine. If he'd let her try sweeping it up into some sort of fancy hairdo it could have taken hours. And for the record, Clark didn't know much about girl's hairstyles because that was just another part of that girl-only knowledge that manly men like him certainly did not know. He did have experience waiting for his mom to finish getting ready to go to several formal events and had gathered that it took a while for her to finish getting her hair just right. Not that Chloe had mom hair.

She had very nice hair actually. Nice short hair that was ready to go in five seconds. It was a definite plus. Not nearly has high maintenance as he bet Lana's mane was. Or Lois's. Yup, long hair was definitely overrated. His shower still had the clogs leftover from Lois's interminable stay to prove it.

Clark pulled on his bow tie. He'd never liked the things, and he was even worse at tying them. He'd spent a long time (for him at any rate) trying to tie and re-tie the thing so it didn't come out lop-sided. After two minutes fiddling with it and even take time out to try fixing it at human speed, Chloe had knocked on the door and demanded he come out. So he'd left for The Talon with it still leaning crookedly a bit to the left. Bow-tie tying really had been more of his mother's specialty. And Lex's.

He yanked on it again.

"Clark," Chloe hissed batting at his hands, "You look fine. No one's going to notice that you're all thumbs when it comes to tying those things."

"Well you didn't actually offer to help."

"Please, like I can tie them. My dad's tie collection is strictly of the clip-on variety and most of them include Looney Toons characters."

Clark laughed. He could definitely see Mr. Sullivan coming into work at the fertilizer plant with Bugs Bunny hanging from his neck. "Well, Miss Sullivan, do you want to take a quick look at the exhibits?"

"I'd love to, Mr. Kent." She said grinning up at him. His breath caught in his throat for a second. Whereas Clark felt he looked a bit shabby with his lopsided tie and slightly rumpled tux (his mom was a better ironer too), Chloe was stunning. She was wearing the same short black dress she'd worn to the Windgate Club. She'd also borrowed a necklace from Lois, which in turn had come from Oliver Queen, and the diamond pendant hung low on her neck drawing attention to her chest. Clark was trying hard to remind himself where his best friend's eyes were.

"Alright." He said.

Chloe smiled up at him. "Your eyes are glowing just a bit." She practically sing-songed. Oh, she definitely knew. He didn't know how she'd figured out his trigger, but she definitely knew, and she was having too much fun with it. She shook her head and her expression grew more serious. Reaching across her shoulders, she pulled her cloth wrap lower on across her chest, covering most of it. "Are you going to need a few minutes and should I start wearing a parka around you?" Her tone was still amused.

He blinked a few times and felt his eyes settle back to normal. "Nah. I'm good and I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Right." She said, checking her watch. "We've got forty minutes. Let's go farmboy."

When Clark walked into the main lobby of museum where the gala was taking place, he felt his jaw drop.

"Whoa." Chloe said, echoing his surprise.

Apparently, the main exhibition of the museum was no longer the Alexander the Great artifacts, which, granted, made sense considering that it had been five years since Clark had been to the museum. However, he really wished he'd kept up with all the details about the newest exhibit. It would have left him a little less blind-sided.

"Yeah, whoa."

"I heard that the newest exhibition was going to focus on an evolution of writing systems." Off his look, she added, "Oh come on. I work at the Planet. I know almost everything that goes on in this town."

Staring at the sandstone tablet in front of him, Clark nodded and rested his hand on the nearest glass case. "Uh, so that's the Rosetta Stone. I thought it'd be bigger."

"Yeah, well I guess they wrote hieroglyphics and Greek really small in those days." Chloe started walking over to the left side of the room and Clark followed her, still more on autopilot than anything else. The blonde stopped in front of a case filled with a variety of artifacts from across the globe---sections of what the placard proclaimed to be a Mayan rain god statue, a pieced together burial urn from ancient Egypt, a dragon mask with wide holes for the eyes from feudal China---and all donated to the exhibit by the Luthor family. She squinted at the collection of glyphs on the back of the objects. "That's what I think it is, isn't it?"

"Oh yeah."

She stepped back for a second and looked at the title banner of the display. "Mysterious Languages of the Ancient World. Huh. Says here that they think that this writing system may indicate that there was once a universal language, especially considering how widespread it was across very different cultures."

"Well they did get the universal part right."

Chloe turned to him, glanced over her shoulders to make sure no one was close to them, and then asked quietly, "Are you okay?"

"Sure," he said, nodding, even though his throat felt like it had been filled with cotton. "It's just sort of a shock to see it all displayed out in the open like this. I mean," he said, lowering his voice to a whisper, "I know no one can trace it to me, but it's so weird that it's just out here in between the printing press and the Rosetta Stone."

"Heh. Your language is famous."

"Not mine."

"Well not literally, but you know what I mean. It's definitely not what I thought we'd be seeing. With a crowd as snooty as this, I was thinking Monet's Water Lilies or something." She quirked her head at him, her voice still barely audible for human hearing, "So quench a girl's curiosity. What does this stuff say anyway? I've always wanted to know."

He raised an eyebrow. "Always?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I sort of stopped by to visit the mansion on graduation day and found you, super thief, passed out in front of Lex's collection of Kryptonite and rare artifacts."

He rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks for the save by the way."

"Put it on my tab. I figure one day our mutual saving society will even out."

"We can hope." He looked down at her, furrowing his brow. "Do you really want to know?"

"Sure. I love a good mystery and why do you even need to ask?"

He shook his head, feeling his shellshock lifting. Only Chloe would take time out of her busy New Year's Eve partying adventure to hear someone decipher an alien language. Only Chloe would be interested in alien languages and aliens without (probably) running screaming for the nearest outpost of the National Guard. He sighed. "It's really not that interesting."

"Well as my Kryptonian-English dictionary, I fully expect you to translate for me anyway."

"It's the same on all three statues 'Look deeper.' I think the Mayan and the Egyptian things were holding the crystals and the dragon head I saw for myself in China."

"Wow. Mystery of the ages that linguists can't crack and it really is sort of dull." She bit her lip. "Let's not tell anyone. I think people who spend their lives trying to translate that stuff would feel sort of let down."

"Well, if it makes them feel better the caves in Smallville have a whole set of Native American legends on them so the Kryptonians didn't always opt for the boring and the direct commands in their writing."

Clark was about to start over to the refreshment table. He didn't need to be around anything Kryptonian for too long. Not that anyone could trace it to him, but it just didn't seem like a great idea just in case. His experience with the ship's key taught him that these artifacts sometimes had an agenda of their own. So, there he was, just pulling an about face, when a gratingly familiar tone rang out.

"Smallville? Cuz? What are you two doing here?"

Right, Lois was here too. How had he managed to forget that?

Chloe, who had still been studying the statues, turned around and wrapped Lois in a hug. "Hey. We were both sitting around at home with Dad and I remembered that I could get us in with my Planet passes."

"I see that." Lois said chuckling. "Smallville, why are you wearing glasses in the picture? I thought you were twenty-twenty."

"It's all I had." Chloe added. "It's from junior year yearbook photos when he was still having…um…vision problems."

"So you really were a bona fide geek. Tell me you're hiding a Star Wars collection somewhere and I will die a happy woman."

"No such luck." Clark said, gritting his teeth and turning instead to Oliver. "Oliver Queen, long time, no see."

"At least not since Thanksgiving. How are you doing?"

Clark took Oliver's proffered hand and gave it a slight squeeze, nothing severe enough to break bones but just adding a little pressure. If he was going to have fun tonight, surely he could add in a little alpha male posturing. It was all he had. Even though he didn't need them, he was pretty jealous of all of the Green Arrow's cool toys. "Good man. And you?"

Oliver took back his hand and to his credit didn't grab it or try shaking it out. "Good. You know how it gets being busy. I have quite the night life." He winked at Lois when he said it, but Clark didn't miss the double entendre.

Lois rolled her eyes. "Don't let Ollie give you the wrong idea about things. He spends way too much time commuting back and forth to Star City if you ask me. So why are you two here looking at the boring collection of stones instead of having a little New Year cheer?"

Okay, those statues might be fairly boring and he wasn't exactly a fan of his heritage but they were his boring rocks damn it. And Lois really didn't have to insult them like that. "Some of us don't come with a two drink minimum Lois."

Oliver glanced at Chloe and she nodded, quickly pulling Lois with her over to the refreshment table. Clark could hear the taller girl grumbling about patronizing farmboys and too many anvils. Oliver, for his part, leaned in a little closer to Clark and dropped the volume of his voice. "You know the masking feelings for Lois thing through sarcasm? It only stays cute for so long. Although," he added, glancing at Chloe, "Maybe it's a sublimation of feelings instead."

"Huh?"

Oliver chuckled. "Never mind. Can't say I disagree with your taste. The Sullivan-Lane gene pool is spectacular. It's like a reservoir of smart and beautiful girls."

"Oh that. Chloe and I aren't here like that. She's…she's seeing someone else."

"But I'm thinking you don't want her to be."

"I didn't say that."

"Didn't have to, Clark. I'm a pretty good observer of human nature in my line of work and the looks you two have been giving each other even in the last five minutes…I'd say the feeling's mutual."

Okay even expanding the generic and slightly speciesist expression of "human nature," there was no way that Oliver could tell that Chloe was into him. Chloe loved Jimmy---no James---Olsen. He was just the back-up date. Of course, he was the back-up date who had had his hands all over Chloe's butt not one hour ago. The back-up date who'd almost kissed her in the middle of Manhattan.

Still, it was probably all just wishful thinking on his and Oliver's part. "Maybe. But I'm not going to get my hopes up. Jimmy makes her happy."

"Wait. Jimmy as in Jimmy Olsen from the Daily Planet?"

"You know him? I didn't think he'd rate attention from billionaires. He just scans in archive photos or something."

"Well Lois has a big mouth so I've heard snatches here and there of the Chloe and Jimmy odyssey. However, he's a pretty dedicated journalist. He tried getting an interview with me by promising me free publicity."

"Did you?"

"No, but still you gotta admire the spunk. I heard he tried the same stunt with Lex Luthor and got thrown out on his rear."

"Yeah, admiring Jimmy is really high on my list of priorities."

Oliver chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind. Next time he asks for an interview---and I have feeling he will, kid has a lot to learn about tact---I'll remember turn him down. Superhero solidarity and all that. After all, he did steal your girl."

Bonding with Oliver Queen was never as easy as bonding with Lex had been back in the early days of Lex's tenure in Smallville. Like Lois, Oliver had a talent for saying things that annoyed Clark, whether he meant to or not. "Chloe was never actually my girl. I mean there was this thing for about five seconds in high school. Besides, she'd never stand for that kind of sexist title. It'd be best if you never said anything like that around her…or Lois for that matter. They're biters."

He chuckled harder. "I'll keep that in mind. Still, I'm telling you. The way she smiles at you. I don't think our intrepid Mr. Olsen will be in the picture for long."

"Is that all Ollie? Anything else from your busy nights that you want to tell me about?"

"Business-minded for once. I like that."

He shrugged. "Well, if you've been out a lot that has to mean that something's going down in Metropolis. I've been a bit busy stopping intergalactic super criminals with powers that dwarf mine, but I can take time out from my busy schedule." Hah. That ought to shut him up. Clark was getting really tired of being accused of being lazy. Yeah, he wasn't as proactive as Oliver but trouble seemed to have a way of finding him so it all evened out in the end. Besides, let's see the CEO of Queen Industries stop General Zod.

Clark grinned when Oliver's eyes widened. Definitely let him think about that for a while. "Actually, there seems to be rumors circulating on the street. Have you ever heard of level 33.1? It's supposed to be some pet lab of Lex's to study people…well for lack of a better euphemism, like you."

Actually there were no people like him but that was beside the point. If Oliver wanted to attribute his abilities to meteor exposure or asbestos or birth defects or whatever, let him. "You mean people exposed to meteor rocks?"

"So that's what that is. I thought all of Lois's stories about Smallville were tall tales."

"Don't I wish? But no, I haven't heard about that. You might want to talk to Chloe about it though. I was using her computer earlier and she had some files related to 33.1 research. It's probably mostly urban legends stuff, but she's at least heard of it."

"Right. Because it won't look suspicious when the new billionaire in town starts asking after secret labs."

Clark shrugged. "You could just let her in on the whole thing. I haven't told her because I promised you I wouldn't, but, trust me, she's good at keeping a secret, and I don't think I've ever met anybody with the kind of access to information that she has."

"I have communications satellites."

"She is a communications satellite. She's got moles on top of moles."

Oliver frowned. "I'll think about it. I might have to if I can't get anything concrete about 33.1. I'll keep you updated on it."

"I'd appreciate that. Anything Lex does is going to be dangerous and very illegal."

"Naturally." He replied, smiling broadly when Lois and Chloe approached each with a flute of what Clark assumed was champagne. "Lois, I assume you and Chloe had a good talk. Got all your aggression for Smallville out?"

She glared at Clark. "No talk could do that. Smallville's just too irritating."

"I love you too, Lois." Clark snarked. It's not like he'd been the one to ask her to move onto the Kent farm. The Sullivans had had an apartment in Smallville at the time after all. "I can't tell you how horrible it's been having you only around from eight a.m. to eight p.m. and not all day every day."

"I'm touched."

"Okay then." Chloe said, laying a hand on Clark's arm. "It was great to see you, Lo and I really appreciate you letting me, um, keep borrowing your necklace but I really don't think high society is ready to watch a Lane-Kent throw down."

She nodded and then grinned sweetly at Clark. "See you on Tuesday, bright and early, Clark." With that, she locked arms with Oliver and walked with him over to the open balcony.

"So," Chloe said, bouncing up and down on her toes. "What were you and the billionaire boy wonder talking about? Farm equipment? The price of a decent yacht these days?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you and Oliver Queen have about as much in common as me and Paris Hilton."

"You are both blond." Clark offered.

"Cute. Come on. This whole thing with Oliver Queen is highly suspicious. He owes you favors. You guys have a ten minute conversation that's practically a pantomime because you were whispering so loudly. Oh, there is so much more to this story than you're telling me."

Damn it. His next best friend was going to be deeply stupid. Maybe Lois could introduce to someone from the Inquisitor. Or maybe not, considering how much fun he'd had with Nixon. "There's nothing going on between us."

"Double entendre goodness of that denial aside, you really are a crappy liar, Clark."

He sighed. "Chloe, I think I know where you're going with this and you know I can't tell you anything, but if it makes you feel any better, I think Ollie is going to be seeking you out for some advice on something."

"A big story something?"

"Oh yeah. Trust me. Besides, no one can keep something from Chloe Sullivan for long."

"Damn straight." She said grinning, eyes twinkling and a wide smile covering her face. He loved it when she did that. Hated the all-knowing smirk, but adored the girl when she smiled. "So are you ready to check up on your mom?" She said, threading her arm through his and walking towards the far corner of the room where a flash of familiar red hair was clearly visible.

"I am not checking up on my mom. I am just making sure that she's not lonely on New Year's."

"Keep telling yourself that."

"For the last time I am not trying to protect my mom's honor!" Clark said and stopped when he realized he'd almost shouted it. His mother, startled, turned around and stared at him.

"Clark, Chloe. What are you two doing here?"

"Um…" Clark sputtered, feeling that all-too-familiar blush spread across his cheeks. He'd really like to go one whole day without embarrassing himself. He didn't think that that was too much to ask.

"Mrs. Kent," Chloe said, giving his mother a hug. "You look lovely. Forgive Clark for being so tongue-tied over there. We were here covering the gala for the Planet. Clark's my plus-one for the night."

An amused and familiar voice rang out from behind his mom. "Miss Sullivan. I had no idea that the junior reporters covered high society, especially not the ones who wrote such scathing exposes about Dark Thursday charity misappropriations and mass-murdering farmers." Perry White, as equally rumpled as Clark in a tuxedo and bright emerald tie, stepped out from behind his mom.

"Mr. White," Chloe said, brightening. "I didn't expect you to be here."

"Clearly not. I actually got stuck covering this yawn fest and had the good fortune of getting an interview out of the good senator about her education reform proposals and her new immigration policies." He winked at Chloe as he took her hand. "Don't worry. I'm not going to rat you out. If someone actually wanted to be here, they shouldn't be penalized for using the clout of the DP to do it. Besides, maybe you two will find a more interesting story than I can. You both seem to have a talent for the bug-eyed monster stories, even if we're a little past high school now."

Chloe laughed. "I think we just have gold diggers and high maintenance dowagers here, Mr. White, but if there's a conspiracy afoot, I'm sure I'll be able to sniff it out."

Perry dropped his hand from Chloe and reached out to shake Clark's. "Clark. It's good to see you again. Your mom has been going on about you."

"Really?"

"A bit here and there. Apparently you've been running the farm all by yourself. I'm from Metropolis myself and wouldn't know a plough from a pommel, but that's fairly impressive. Takes a lot of work, I'd imagine."

Clark grimaced. It wasn't that he was ashamed of being a farmer. He wasn't. It was a family tradition and he was glad to be able to keep his father's farm up and running. It's just that the way his life had ended up, it wasn't at all how he'd planned it. Perry White had been impressed by his writing and had seen the potential journalist in him. Now he was just a farmhand. It was weird. It sort of felt like Clark had let the other man down.

He shook Perry's waiting hand. "Thanks sir. It does take a lot of effort."

Perry nodded and looked back to his mom. "Well, Senator Kent, it has been a wonderful evening talking with you. Everyone else here always goes on about whose sleeping with whom and whose had the latest nip and tuck. It's refreshing to meet someone so obviously dedicated to her causes." He smiled and grabbed her hand, bringing it to his mouth for a quick kiss. "Yes, it's been a very lovely time indeed."

"Thank you, Perry and it's Martha. If the Planet needs any more information about my policy plans I will be more than happy to grant an interview. Any publicity for the bills we can get would be great. If they send you or Chloe for the interview, I'll even throw in a home baked meal." She pulled her hand away and frowned at Chloe. "In fact, I'd prefer they send her, since I don't think the steady diet of coffee the Daily Planet has her on is good for her health."

"Neither is my steady diet of crullers." Perry riposted. "Don't worry, Martha, We'll set something up before now and voting time. Clark, Chloe." He added before heading off, notepad at the ready, to talk to the mayor.

His mom watched him leave with a smile on her face almost as broad as Chloe's. "He's a very nice man, when he's not parking a van out in front of our house."

Clark couldn't help grinning himself. Personally, he wanted his mom to join a nice convent and never think about guys or dating again. But if she had to have a little crush on someone, he would so much rather it be Perry White than Lionel Luthor. Okay, he'd almost rather that his mom have a crush on Lex instead or Lionel or possibly Hannibal Lector, but Perry White was a vast improvement.

"I'll bet," he said, leaning down and giving his mom a hug. "You look great mom."

She laughed. "You said that before I left sweetie, but thank you." She gave a turn so that the skirt of her green taffeta dress gave a slight swirl.

"Well I think it bears repeating too." Chloe added. "You look very festive."

"So do you Chloe. But why are you two here, if you're not covering for the Planet? Clark told me that you were going to be spending the night out with Jimmy."

Clark was eternally grateful that his mother hadn't mentioned the way he'd been pouting around the house before she left. His not-quite-tantrum had included a five minute rant about all of Jimmy's faults and the accidental shattering of a glass of orange juice. It's not his fault that everything on Earth was so damn flimsy. At any rate, it was fair to say that Oliver Queen wasn't the only one who had noticed how attached to Chloe he'd become.

Chloe's smile faltered for a second. "Jimmy had a last minute assignment come up and I decided that I didn't want to spend the night watching bad reruns with my dad. Actually, I was wondering if you could help us out with that."

"Really? What can I do?"

"Well," Chloe said, shifting slightly from side to side, "We promised my dad that we'd be in by 12:30 but we sort of came up with this plan to catch the New Year's celebrations in all four time zones."

His mom arched an eyebrow at him but remained composed. "Oh you did, did you?"

Clark swallowed hard and tried to stay upright. So his mom scared him sometimes. That was apparently one of the typical things he shared with other kids his age. After all, she did have the power to ground him, at least theoretically, not that he hadn't basically grounded himself all year. But did he mention intimidating? That thing about redheads and tempers was true.

"It was my idea, Mrs. Kent. I thought that Clark deserved to have some fun and since I haven't been able to pry him off the farm in ages, I thought that I'd taken advantage of his party mood and do this right."

His mom nodded. "And I haven't seen you outside of the Planet's basement since Thanksgiving. Let me guess, you want me to call Gabe and provide a cover story for the both of you."

"Well I was wondering if after we get back from the West Coast, I could just spend the night in your hotel room. I assume you aren't going to drive all the way back Smallville after midnight."

"No and I'd be happy to do that for you. After all, it's not like you can explain to him that Clark is just going to be running the two of you back from California."

Clark blinked. His mom was never fun. Alright, she gave a lot less lectures than his dad ever had, but he thought she'd be the last person to support their little cross-country jaunt. Maybe he'd been spending more time alone brooding than he thought if even his mom was desperate for anything to get him off of the farm.

"Really? You're okay with this?"

"You're with Chloe and I know the two of you aren't going to do anything to get into trouble." She frowned. "You promise not to do anything illegal tonight. After all the stress with Javier, I was hoping you two would keep all sleuthing/rescuing above the board."

Chloe smiled and shook her head. "Just sight-seeing, Mrs. Kent, and we promise to be back to your hotel by 2 a.m. or so."

"Alright. I'll go make the call right away. You two enjoy the rest of your night." She added, winking at Chloe and giving him a squeeze on the arm.

"Thanks Mrs. Kent."

"Thanks mom."

"Oh and Clark?" Now there was the tone he recognized----that authoritarian mom speak.

"What?"

"I'm flattered, but you don't really need to check up on me. I'm fine."

(Not if you insist on hanging out with Lionel Luthor, you won't be.) Clark thought. Instead since he really was looking forward to going out to California, he said, "Yes mom." He leaned down to give her one more kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you in a little bit."

"No later than 2:15 kids. And remember, I know exactly how long it would take you to get back from the coast." She winked again and headed off toward the balcony with its view of the LuthorCorp Plaza.

Chloe was practically vibrating with energy. "See, I told you your mom would approve. It's all part of our grand mission to get the farmboy off of the farm and into some culture."

"Great Chlo. I think I've been enlightened already between frogs' legs and hieroglyphics."

"I think it might take a bit more education before you make a refined man out of him, Chloe."

Clark closed his eyes and counted to ten. He really shouldn't squash or flambé a billionaire in front of the Who's Who of Metropolis. It was wrong, very, very wrong and stuff. Instead, he opened his eyes, took a deep breath and turned to face Lex.

Lana being on his arm was an excruciating bonus.

"Lex," Chloe said, in the same tone she reserved for competing Inquisitor reporters she met while out on assignment, "fancy meeting you here."

"I was going to say the same thing about you two before I spied the press passes. I guess that means your actual invitations got lost in the mail."

"Funny. Well we can't all donate half the crap in our top secret family vaults in order to get front row seats, can we?" She smiled at him but to Clark it reminded him much more of the way a shark grinned at its prey. It was moments like these with the tension radiating between Chloe and Lex that reminded him that Chloe really was a Metropolis girl at heart. She was also someone who could tangle with a Luthor and win.

"Clark," Lex acknowledged. "I see you still haven't figured out how to tie that bow tie. You might want to work on mastering that before your wedding. You know, if you ever find someone to marry besides Bessie the family cow." He wrapped his left arm tightly around Lana's shoulder when he said it.

He was doing that on purpose of course. Now it seemed that when they did see each other, all their arguments had been downgraded to pissing contests over Lana. Not that he still didn't hate seeing her with him but not because he wanted to be with her instead. Okay, well a part of him still wanted to be with her, but it didn't mean that that was anywhere near a feasible idea. He was still him and she was still her and thus fragile and breakable. Plus, the whole her not being capable of keeping his secret thing was a pretty big deterrent. That didn't mean it was a good idea for her to be that close to Metropolis's second worst villain. Its first worst of course was Lex's father. Yeah, that was a gene pool to marry into.

However, mentioning Lana in an argument now struck him as being a lot less about their feelings for her and more about annoying one another. Maybe Lois had something there about that whole territory marking thing.

Well tonight he wasn't going to rise to the bait. Mostly because if he did, Chloe would slap him the second Lana and Lex left. She had long ago determined that was the best way to (literally) knock sense into him. "We don't actually have a Bessie right now, but there is a Delilah. She's single if you're interested, Lex."

Okay, so he was going to be a little petty.

Chloe giggled into her flute and stopped when Lana frowned at her. "So, Lana, I didn't expect you to be out tonight what with life being so busy at the mansion."

"Well it was just going to be so beautiful tonight. Plus, I didn't want to miss the exhibit unveiling. They even have some tablets from the caves in Smallville, if you all are interested. All this writing has turned out to be such a big part of our lives."

She looked at him when she said it. If only she knew.

Clark frowned. Lana seemed a bit off tonight. She was looking at him when she spoke, but her eyes were unfocused and it seemed like she was staring off at a point that only she could see. Her speech was slow and quiet and she wobbled a bit as if she might faint at any moment. He glanced at Chloe but she shook her head. Apparently he'd be getting the story later.

"Yeah, well it's been really great seeing everyone." He said, trying to walk away.

Lex was still amused and he smiled down at Chloe, his predator's grin matching her own. "Chloe, I have to say I'm still quite surprised. I thought you'd be spending New Year's Eve with your boyfriend. If I hadn't met him, I'd think you made him up. I mean, Lana tells me he wasn't even at Thanksgiving."

"He's working tonight."

"So no New Year's kiss? And I'd been rooting so hard for the two of you. Maybe you really shouldn't be handing out love life advice after all. Save that kernels of dating wisdom for a column later in your career, perhaps?"

"Lex, stop that. If Jimmy had to work, he had to work." Lana chastised him, but her tone was flat. It was as if she couldn't quite muster up the energy to care.

"You're right, Lana. I'm sorry. We shouldn't flaunt our happiness in front of the less fortunate. Chloe, Clark." He leaned down and whispered something in Chloe's ear before leaving, practically dragging Lana behind him.

Clark, who had been busy trying to make an awkward goodbye with Lana, hadn't caught what Lex had said. Instead, he stood there watching Lana amble off, as shaky and directionless as if she were a zombie, cursing himself for the could-have-beens. Of course, even he couldn't save her from her own poor taste. When he turned back to Chloe, she had tears welling up in her eyes.

"Chlo?" he asked, leaning down and pulling her chin up so he could see her eyes, "Are you okay?"

She sniffed but when she spoke her voice was almost level, "It's nothing, Clark. Can we just…" She shook her head. "Can we just not be here? I don't want to be in the same room with that man."

He nodded. "I know a place."

A stiff breeze blew, rustling Chloe's hair, making it look almost like downy feathers floating on the wind. Normally, Clark would have stifled the urge to run his fingers through her hair but tonight he was getting tired of best friend boundaries. Not that best girlfriends didn't braid each other's hair and all that anyway. Not that he was going to let her touch his hair, but still he thought running his fingers through her locks could be considered nice and platonic.

Platonic, yeah right.

He was standing behind her, his left fingers threading their way through her hair and his right hand resting on her shoulder. She was leaning into him, her breath hitching.

"You okay now?"

She leaned back further into him and he dropped his arms onto hers to help keep her warm. He could already feel the network of goose bumps criss-crossing her shoulders. "Better."

"So do you wanna talk about it?"

She sighed. "He just said that he met Jimmy Olsen and he was disappointed that that was the best I could do."

"Oh."

"Yeah oh. We sort of got into a fight about my permanently single status last year when I was trying to warn him off of Lana."

"Really?"

"Don't sound so eager. I wasn't doing it for you. I didn't want Lana dating the Prince of Darkness anymore than you did."

"I'm sorry he was mean to you." He started rubbing her arms, but she pulled away and turned to face him. Her eyes were puffy and red, but he didn't mention it.

"Lex is mean to everybody. I shouldn't take it personally."

"It was personal. Lex is smart and he's always known what to say to make things cut. It's why he can't go five seconds without mentioning Lana when I'm near him."

"Yeah, you're right."

"So he really was making fun of you for not dating a lot?"

"'A lot?' Clark I had three dates in high school: a guy who tried to suck the body heat out of me, a guy who tried to impale me with farm tools, and a guy who almost threw me over a bridge. Oh and Jimmy. I wasn't exactly rolling in options."

"You know you could have been."

She rolled her eyes and started pacing. "Well I wasn't exactly a cheerleader with raven locks and preternaturally large eyes."

"The entire student body could not date Lana. You're pretty."

"You say that like I'm your sister."

"Look, I know you could have had tons of guys. When you were high on that parasite, you had half the school panting after you and some of them made it as far as The Torch office. I'm not saying you had to be aggressively sexy but guys would have been interested if you'd been a bit more confident or out there. Lex is wrong about that."

"Gee thanks."

He reached out his arm and stopped her from pacing. She tried for a second to pull out of his grip but stopped pulling when she realized it was pointless. "Why didn't you ever put yourself out there?"

She turned her head away from him but he grabbed her chin and made her look at him. "You know why."

Yeah, he knew why. He'd known why even if it was only in the back of his mind since they'd been to visit Kyle Tippet and he'd gotten his third ever kiss from her. She'd gotten the taste of mint in her mouth and a half-hearted reassurance that everything had been "fine."

He really was an ass sometimes. Things had been much better than fine. Chloe was very good at what she did. He'd just been too surprised and too wrapped up in Lana to enjoy it. He'd spent far too much of his damn time waiting for Lana.

"I'm sorry you were waiting for me."

She rolled her eyes. "Like that doesn't make you sound egotistical."

"Alright, I'm sorry I didn't feel the same way about you."

She pulled again and gritted her teeth at him. "Can you let me go now?"

"You promise not to turn your shoulder to me?"

"I do."

He released her and she stepped back a few feet, leaning her back against the brick wall of the Planet's roof. "It wasn't all about you Clark. There were a lot of things. Plus, it's not that easy to want to jump back into the dating pool when you rack up a few homicidal exes."

"I know, but I also know I let you down a lot then."

"Well things change. Whatever innuendo Lex wants to make, I'm very happy with Jimmy. He loves me and he treats me well, appreciates me."

He nodded but he could her heart speed up as she spoke like he always did when she lied, when most people lied. Maybe Chloe wanted to believe that she loved Jimmy, wanted to make it fit, but they both knew it wasn't working between her and the photographer. He was much more like the over anxious puppy that followed her around. Not that he was slobbering on her, per say, but he was more physically affectionate with her than she was with him. And she'd never quite taken to being called "his girl."

That petty part of Clark wanted to crow that she didn't like the label because she was already _his_ girl.

"I know." That was the last thing he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her that he'd been stupid and blind for the last six years. That he wanted to be Chloe's legitimate New Year's Eve date this year and every year after. But that wasn't what he was supposed to say. He was supposed to be the best friend and not the would-be suitor, especially not with the real boyfriend working right below them.

"Exactly." She said, covertly rubbing at her eyes. "I shouldn't listen to someone whose ex-wives could start a black widow society."

"Right. So no more talk about Lex or Lana."

She quirked her head at him, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips, "You've been remarkably restrained tonight. I thought I'd get a full-out Lex and Lana rant the second we arrived on the roof."

He smiled back at her. "Well, I know even you get tired of the constant soap opera that is my life. Besides, you were already feeling down enough for the both of us. Of course, now that you bring it up, is everything okay? Lana seemed off tonight."

Chloe shrugged. "Did I mention the Prince of Evil?"

"I think it was darkness."

She laughed. "Trust me, Clark, Lana's going to be okay."

"Good…I…sometimes I just wish Lex wasn't so darn dangerous. Now I know why my dad was so freaked out all those years. So," he said, walking over beside her and leaning against the wall as well. "How much time do we have left?"

"According to my watch, about three minutes."

"Good. You're not getting tired on me, are you?"

"Nah. Are you kidding? An all-nighter doesn't even start getting good until three a.m."

"And a morning on the farm doesn't get good until five." He shook his head. "We really are very different people."

"But it works, like peanut butter and jelly."

"Excuse me? Did you just compare our epic friendship to a sandwich?"

"Epic, huh?"

"Well we do take down legendarily evil criminals. I think that should make our dynamic duo equally larger-than-life."

"Do I get top billing? I am the brains behind the operation."

"I'm smart!"

"Yes, you are. But you seem to be more of a smash and grab kind of guy. I'm the resident hacker."

"I could hack, if I wanted to."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Maybe I'll teach you someday. That could be good. Next time I need downtime with Jimmy I won't have to be called away for hacking into LuthorCorp files duty."

And here they were having such a good time and she had to mention Jimmy Olsen. He really hated hearing about him. Jimmy was a good enough guy. He'd never been mean to him or anything, but he didn't need to hear his name every five seconds either. Now he knew how Chloe probably felt all during his Lana-moping faze.

"Yeah." He agreed, not having anything else to add.

"You know," she said, looking up at the Daily Planet globe. "It really is beautiful up here, and I fell in love with just the paper, but the art deco style of the building is winning me over too. Even the basement is nice."

He chuckled. "Only in Metropolis. I was up here once before."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It was that time when my mom and Lionel were being held hostage at LuthorCorp. The building was alarmed and surrounded by cops but no one was watching the Planet."

Chloe arched looked over her shoulder at the LuthorCorp building and back up at him. "You know that's a pretty far jump. What, 200 feet?"

"Are you implying something?"

"Well you were younger then and hadn't practice Fortress jumping or stopping nuclear missiles."

"And?"

"Did you actually make it?" She was giving him the smirk again. As much as he hated that, he was glad to see she was in a better mood.

"Hey! I made it. Don't you think all of downtown Metropolis would have noticed if I'd pulled a Wiley Coyote in the middle of a police stand-off?"

She giggled. "I'm just saying."

"Well, I didn't hit the floor I aimed for. I might have been a little short."

She giggled harder. "Don't worry, you were a growing boy. I bet you could jump across half the city by now." He couldn't help notice the note of pride coloring her voice. Sometimes he thought that she really believed her statement about him being her own personal superhero.

"Maybe I could." He shrugged. "I still don't think I'm too fond of it up here. I have this thing with heights."

"I think you're going to have to get over it. I mean, you can't even be hurt if you fell."

"Doesn't make it fun." She shivered against him and he wrapped his left arm around her shoulders. "Besides it's too cold up here."

"Not exactly the Arctic." She riposted.

"Fair enough. So are you…" He started, but he stopped when a thundering noise rang out. Instinctively, Clark reached up to cover his ears. It'd been a while since he'd heard fireworks. In fact, the last time might have been at his impromptu party freshman year of high school

It rang out again and the sky around them erupted in sparks of green and gold.

Hissing, Clark stood up and placed his hands over his ears. Chloe was up and by his side almost faster than he would have thought could be humanly possible. "Clark, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just give me a second." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, consciously re-adjusting his hearing until the noise seemed no louder to him than it did to her. "I got it."

"Sorry. I forgot how loud these things are. I haven't seen any since Fourth of July three years ago when I visited Lois at Fort Bragg."

"Surprisingly, fireworks at full volume are not that much fun."

"But they sure are gorgeous." She said, her patented wide smile plastered on her face. She turned and watched as the sky erupted in patterns of silver, blue, and purple. He grabbed her arm and pulled her around so she could face the Planet's globe instead. From that vantage point, one could see the cavalcade of colors reflected in the globe's surface, every color tinged with an aura of gold. Her grin widened and Clark's heart stopped. "Definitely gorgeous."

While she stared ahead, transfixed by the light show, he stared only at her. "Yeah, gorgeous."

Breathtaking was the only word that Clark could come up with to describe view from Denver's City Park. There was probably some better phrase to describe the scene, something less hackneyed, something Chloe'd know. But he wasn't a writer, not anymore at least, and it seemed to him to be an apt description. From the center of the park, one could spy the glimmering towers that comprised downtown Denver. As part of the New Year's Eve festivities, the city had set up a series of flood lights, which glinted off the skyscrapers and made their windows twinkle in the dark. Then there were the mountains. The Rockies rose high into the sky, snow-covered tops and fearsome granite sides towering above the valley. Even Clark felt dwarfed by them.

He had to admit, Chloe made a great tour guide. She had a knack for picking the more entertaining venues, although it helped when there was a low chance of Lex showing up.

Speaking of his tour guide, Chloe had his hand wrapped tightly in hers and was dragging him past the pink-roofed lake house. Clark rolled his eyes but let her keep pulling on his arm. Sometimes it was fun to let her manhandle him. Wait, that sounded a bit dirty when he thought of it like that. It was just nice to be comfortable with someone, to be able to tone down his strength, even if she knew it was still there.

She yanked his arm again. "Come on, Clark, superspeed my ass. I'd like to get to the lake before it unthaws."

"Chlo, it's twenty degrees outside and the middle of the night. I really don't think the lake is just going to magically melt. You know, besides me staring at it too hard or something."

She smirked up at him. "You're not feeling your eyes itching are you?" She arched her back a little, showing off her chest. Well, she would have been showing off her chest if it weren't camouflaged behind a cropped down jacket. She looked more like the Michelin man than the alluring girl she was. Ooh, alluring. Maybe he was more of a writer than he thought. And that platonic thing? It had definitely fallen by the wayside up on the Planet's roof. If only he could arrange for Jimmy Olsen to drop off the face of the planet…

"Um, Chloe, about that." He coughed in an attempt to keep his voice from breaking. "How do you even know about my heat vision?"

Chloe's smirk widened as she hopped over a swan-shaped paddle boat lying near the lake's edge. "That whole memory-wipe you had spring of senior year. Let's just say you're a lot less circumspect when amnesia is involved. One look at Lana and I thought The Talon was going down in flames."

"Oh. Well, jeez, like that's not embarrassing."

"I spent a week as a cheerleader in view of the entire student body for you. I think I have the market corned on embarrassing from now until we hit sixty."

"Yeah, well that was a one time deal. This comes up more often than I like."

Chloe snickered at his unintentional double entendre. He really needed less quick-witted friends. Maybe somebody down at the Wild Coyote would suffice. "Point taken. You sure you're feeling okay, though? Your heat vision's been acting up more than I've ever seen it, not that I've seen you use it outside of crisis situations.

He shrugged and sat down on the bench, scooting over to allow Chloe a seat next to him. "I'm fine. It's just been a little problematic tonight is all."

"I get it. There were a lot of pretty girls in Times Square and most of them looked like they were trying for Mardi Gras beads. Too bad no one told them that it was the wrong alcohol-soaked holiday."

"Yeah, the crowd, that's it." Clark agreed, shoving the skate on his foot. It was completely the crowd of random girls and not having his hands firmly grasping Chloe's rear that set him off in New York. It had been all the socialite airheads and not Chloe dazzling in a dress that hugged her curves at the gala. One day he needed to say things out loud and not let them fester, but tonight wouldn't be that night. Not with her previous confession of her (dubious) love for Jimmy. If she wanted to try and make it work with the photographer, he had the right to let her. Lord knew she'd been supportive of him and Lana. Besides, a decent guy just didn't steal a girl out from someone else's nose.

And Clark wanted to be a decent guy.

Of course, the decent guy was also the guy who went ice-skating as the back-up date instead of shagging his best friend silly (and he needed to stop watching his Austin Powers DVDs so much).

Chloe hopped up onto her skates and stood in front of him, foot tapping on the snow. "Are you coming? I'm starting to see why you were always late to school. I've never seen it take so long for someone to put on a pair of skates."

Clark shook his head and reached for his left skate. "It's the socks, I want to make sure they're lined up right on my toes or else it just sucks."

"Is that a Kryptonian thing?"

"I think it's just plain old OCD, actually." He said, finishing tying the knot. He hesitated, putting his hands on his knees. "You know Chloe, I don't know about this."

"Look the lake's been frozen since November. Granted it's not exactly a skating rink but I don't think anyone is looking for renegade ice capaders right now. It'll be fun."

"It's just I'm not very good at this."

"Oh for the love of god, Clark. It's not like if you fall down you're going to hurt anything, except possibly by cracking the ice. You'll need to watch that though. I don't need to go swimming right now because I plan to go for a whole year without catching hypothermia in your presence."

He winced. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that."

She shrugged. "I told you I'm over that. Besides, it just gives me motivation to find an alien friend from a tropical planet, as I've said before." She put her hands on her hips. "Now stop stalling. We have forty-five minutes until midnight and there's two other things on my agenda." Clark stood up, wobbling on his legs and reaching out for Chloe's shoulders. He pitched forward and almost pulled Chloe down with him, but she recovered quickly and managed to right herself and him before either of them could fall. "Just watch the sudden tumbles. I love you like crazy but if you pull my arm off, we're going to have a problem."

Clark let out a breath and pushed himself off from her and tottered a few steps closer to the lake's edge. "We can always just call this off."

"No way. You know the rules. You picked what we got to do last time and you called dibs on Los Angeles, so it's my turn and I want to ice skate."

Clark took five baby steps and found himself perched precariously on the ice. "You know you have me totally whipped."

"And the only thing I ask you for is help in taking down meteor mutants. I could be up to my eyeballs by now in riches if I was a bit more devious. And I wouldn't even need the green K to do it. I know where Martha hides the incriminating yet hilarious toddler pictures. Personal favorite? The naked ghost buster."

Oh she wouldn't. "No way. You can't." He said lunging forward towards her.

Chloe spun around and start skating backwards, increasing her speed even as he darted towards her and grinning when he hit the ice with a thump. "Did you crack it?"

"Thanks for the concern, Chlo." He said rolling over on to his side, so he could check the ice. "Nope, it's still in one piece and so am I."

"Naturally." She skated in a circle around him, picking up momentum, as he worked his way back onto his hands and knees. As he struggled to stand up right, she grinned at him and executed a jump, landing easily on her left foot.

"You can ice skate?"

"That's why I wanted to come." She circled around him again. "Are you going to need help pulling yourself up because I don't think I can lift you."

"Funny." He answered pushing up from his knees and standing upright, his hands flailing wildly at his side. "You know you only get away with your devious scheming because I can't catch you."

"That's the other perk," Chloe said, drawing a figure eight in the ice. "Where else am I going to be faster than the fastest man alive?"

"Second, I think."

"Huh?"

"Second fastest. There's this guy I know."

"Of course. You know all the best people: the Green Arrow, A.C., Victor. I'm not surprised you know Speedy Gonzalez." He arched his eyebrow at her and she sighed. "Okay Grease Lightening, whatever alias you'd like to make up for your safely confidential buddy." She winked at him. "At any rate, we've firmly established that lightening doesn't run on ice."

"Hah." He teetered on his skates some more, his arms wind milling behind him and his knees tightly bent. "Chloe, can I have a little help here."

She skated in closer and held out one leather-gloved hand for him to grasp. He took her hand in his, wishing that it was her bare skin he held, that it was more intimate contact, but humans got cold. "Alright, first things first. You need to stop being afraid."

He stood up a little straighter. "I am not afraid."

"Oh yes you are. I'm not sure why since there's that whole indestructible thing, but you're definitely scared. It's why you're clenching up so much. You have to be okay with hitting the ice so you can loosen up."

"I am 'okay' with hitting the ice. I just don't think it would be too okay with me hitting hit."

"Alright, I'll save your manly pride and say that it's fear of cracking the ice, which is very justified and let's try really hard not to do that, but just relax. Take a deep breath."

Clark closed his eyes and started drawing in a lungful of air. Chloe's hand slapping his arm made him stop mid-breath, his cheeks puffed out like a blowfish. He quirked his head at her but didn't speak. At this point in their relationship, he figured she could read the annoyance in his expression.

She held up her hands. "Less literal deep breath. You sort of made the tree branches shake."

He let out the air carefully, although it still was enough to create a breeze that rustled leaves and made Chloe's hair flutter. "Oh for the love of God."

"Hold it right there Montressor. Just take a nice normal non-tree destroying breath and get centered. This is easier if you relax." She reached up with her other hand as she said it and began rubbing his shoulder.

Well that was much more helpful than that stupid breathing thing. Clark opened his eyes again and looked at her. "Okay. So what's next."

"You need to stand up a little straighter and unclench your knees. You're tightened into a little ball and balls don't ice skate." He nodded and straightened his legs, feeling his center of gravity shift under him. Chloe eased over to his right, her left hand still clasped in his. "Okay, next I want you to move."

Clark kicked out his right foot and shuffled forward.

Chloe chuckled. "Are you serious?"

"What?"

"Clark, this is about grace. You're supposed to glide. That's why we're on ice in the first place. You're shuffling like some of the inebriated down at Times Square or possibly a seal, but they're even better on ice than you."

"Why do I hang out with you again?"

"I'm a fabulous conversationalist and the best internet researcher this side of the CIA. Anyway, we're going to try this again. Watch me first." She said, picking up her right leg slightly and pushing off onto it. She only went a few feet and stopped herself with her toe pick before she went out of the range of Clark's arm. "See the gliding. It's more like going out at an angle too instead of trying to shuffle straight forward. You can do this."

He nodded as she gripped his hand tighter. "I'm ready."

"Good. I'm going to count off and you're going to follow my lead: One, two, three!"

Together, they both took off on their left feet and Clark struggled to keep his knees bent yet flexible. If he thought about it like football it was a little easier. You weren't supposed to lock your knees when planted in that sport either. If you weren't him it could lead to serious injuries. So he tried bouncing a bit on his toes, keeping his weight forward, all the while following Chloe's lead. It also reminded him a bit of the Wizard of Oz with the exaggerated walk of the foursome as they made their way down the yellow brick road. His legs were practically wrapped up with Chloe's as they moved.

The girl in question grinned up at him. "See you're getting this. I knew you could do it."

You know that thing about Murphy's Law? Well apparently Murphy's Law was a) universal and b) had long ago made Clark its personal butt monkey. No sooner had Chloe uttered her encouragement than he stumbled and they were both falling ass over tea kettle onto the ice. Clark twisted quickly in mid-air so that he hit the ice and Chloe landed on top of him.

"Oof." She said, letting her head rest on top of his chest. "That hurt."

"Oh, I'm sorry, would you rather be the one who hit the ice?"

She picked her head up and bit her lip. "Which one do you think is harder ice or steel?"

"You know, I have no idea where you even came up with that 'Man of Steel' thing. I think it's kind of stupid."

"No one appreciates a good appellation nowadays. Look," she said, rolling off of him and getting to her feet. "If you ever decide to go Pro with the superhero gig, I'll let you make up your own name and I'll feed it to the Planet. Of course, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the Green Arrow's already taken."

"Har-har," he answered, pulling himself to his feet and in much shorter time than after his previous fall. Maybe he was improving. "Thanks but if I decide to have a public persona I won't be doing anything like what Captain Codpiece has done."

"Soar subject?"

He shrugged. "Not really. I just don't agree with the whole Robin Hood schtick or the green leather. It's a little much." Chloe nodded, but didn't say anything. She'd started circling him again and had picked up enough speed to launch herself into a double jump. "Wow that's really good."

She turned to face him and let him grasp both her hands with his, skating backward as he inched his way forward. "I used to take lessons back in Metropolis."

"You took ice skating lessons?"

"Oh yeah, I had the whole suburban overachieving thing down. My dad was trying to compensate for me not having mom around so anything I asked for, he'd let me do. It was just him and me on his LuthorCorp salary, so he had the money to spend on tons of lessons. I was one of those overscheduled tots on her way to the fast track for Princeton. I had the violin lessons and the ice skating lessons and the voice lessons…"

"You sing?"

"Not more than Karaoke now but I used to be pretty decent. I ice skated for a while, even was in a few competitions."

"Are there pink frilly leotards? Please god tell me there are."

"There was one leotard and it was turquoise. I do NOT do pink."

No, Chloe Sullivan was about as likely to wear pink as he was to wear black (well at least when he wasn't hopped up on red K). Lana was---as Chloe had gleefully deemed her back in her more petty sophomoric phase---"The Pink Princess." Chloe was something else. He wasn't sure if it was a color-coded something or not. She'd probably call herself a hotshot reporter, but she was more than that. She was beautiful and funny and smart.

And someone else's.

"Oh man, you're doing it again."

"What?" Clark asked, looking up from the ice.

"You're moping."

"I am not!"

"You're staring at the ice like it holds the mysteries of the universe. If we had a loft handy, you'd be looking out the window. Come on, we're having fun." She frowned but kept skating backwards, pulling him with her.

"It's nothing. Everything's great, super even."

"Once more with feeling."

"I'm fine, just taking a breather from all that ice skating exertion."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "You really are a crappy liar." She dropped her arms and looped back toward him, draping her arm over his shoulder as best she could. "I shouldn't have let you go to the gala. I didn't think about how much fun it would be to see Lana with Lex."

Lana. Oh right Lana. He remembered her----the brunette who used to run The Talon and was currently sleeping with his ex-best friend. He hadn't been thinking about her all night. "Actually, I wasn't really thinking about her."

"Oh, is there a new girl in Clark's life? You and the cows aren't getting frisky cause I know you're not technically human but I'm thinking that nothing good could ever come of cow romance and please don't make me finish the rest of this sentence…"

Clark paused, too stunned by her weird rant to reply. There definitely needed to be a chocolate limit for Chloe because she got goofy with too much cocoa in her system. "Um no."

"God, it's not Lois because then the cows would be looking like the best option."

"Still eww and I think I'd rather take the cows over Lois any day, at least they shut up."

"Well I'm running out of likely candidates. You don't know many people." Deep in concentration, she licked her lower lip. "Is it someone at the Daily Planet? I know you're there enough. Everyone thinks you're my brother."

Now there was a mental image that went straight up there with him and cows. Some of the things he wanted to do with Chloe were distinctly not brotherly. Clark sighed. He wasn't sure which was worse: to be considered the best friend or the brother. Either way, it didn't look likely that he'd be swaying her away from Jimmy anytime soon. Brother didn't hold a lot of sex appeal after all.

He grinned. "It could be someone at the DP, but I'm not naming names."

"Oh." Chloe said quietly and then added in a rush. "That's great. That's really great that you're getting over Lana."

Unconsciously, he perked up his ears to listen to her heart beat. He knew Chloe's insincere tone when he heard it and true to form her rapid heartbeat was helping to confirm his suspicion that Chloe was anything but thrilled about his potential crush. Well that certainly was interesting. "Yeah," he said breaking away from her grasp and trying to turn to skate backwards for a bit. He paused half way in his turn and let himself wobble. "Um, Chlo, about Lana. Seriously, is she okay? I've never seen her quiet this out of it, and I was in her hospital room after that whole fiasco with the black ship back at graduation."

Chloe frowned and Clark was surprised to hear her heart rate increase. "She's fine. I think she just realized that the gilded edge is always a bit more golden on the other side."

"There's a shock and the Luthors always seemed like such a well-adjusted and happy family."

"Yeah, let's not even start. She made her bed and now she's lying in it. I think for what it's worth---and not to make you feel worse---that Lex loves her. Granted he's a twisted and ruthless sociopath but he cares about her."

"Salt and open wounds, Chlo." He said it more out of reflex. He wasn't interested in dating Lana Lang. Still, he was worried about her. There was something physically wrong with her. He could just feel it. But if Chloe wasn't going to share that was her decision. It's not like she was going to share his deepest and darkest with Lana. He really couldn't expect her to rat Lana out to him.

"Sorry."

"Hakuna matata," Clark called back, shrugging. Twisting all the way back so he was facing her, he made about three successful glides in reverse before he fell flat on his butt.

Chloe laughed and offered him her hand. "Sometimes I think you might just be a lost cause, Mr. Kent." She looked down at her watch. "Are you ready for the next event? We only have twenty-five minutes until midnight."

He took her hand and struggled his way to a standing position. "Yeah, we better start now because I can't superspeed myself off the ice."

"That's for damn sure."

"Okay, so this is how you're going to do it." Chloe said, looking up at him.

It had been almost two years since Clark had last worked at The Torch. Somehow in all that time, he had managed to forget how bossy Chloe could be. He remembered spending hours working on the lay-out for the latest edition and presenting her with the finished results only to have her pat the top of his head in much the same way she'd pet Shelby's and then show him the "right" way to do it. Sometimes Chloe the Editor came to the surface. Strangely Chloe the Editor struck Clark as a demented version of a camp counselor or at least she did when little kids' activities seemed to be on the day's itinerary.

Clark sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Chloe, I know how to make a snow angel."

"But it's all about the technique. You need to make sure you really spread your arms out and the crucial part is jumping out of the angel you've made without treading all over it."

"You know I have done this before and every time it snows on the farm, which it does a lot with us living in Kansas."

"I'm just trying to make sure you get this right." Chloe said, sitting down on the snow. She started shivering immediately. "Damn, I forget how snow goes through denim every time. There's nothing like a wet butt to keep you warm in the dead of winter." She shook her head and plopped down fully on the snow. "You coming, Clark? It's not much of a contest if we don't synchronize ourselves."

Only Chloe would make snow angels competitive. He rolled his eyes and sat down on the snow about five feet from where Chloe lay. He needed to give his arms space for free movement. His angel was going to have a serious wing span. "Alright Chlo. Do I need to countdown for this?"

"No." Well that was a relief. She sure was taking this whole thing a little far. Then Chloe chirped out, "I'll be counting." Oh, of course, nothing unhealthily competitive about a countdown for snow angels.

Clark chuckled and shook his head. "Anytime."

"Ready. Set. Go!"

All in all it seemed sort of silly to synchronize. Snow angels weren't something you graded for how fast you made them but for how much they actually looked like angels and for how few footprints you left behind. Still, Chloe's enthusiasm was endearing. Clark turned his head to the side and watched as Chloe, her face pointed skyward, started flapping her arms and legs against the snow. It was cute.

"Hey, farmboy, the point of counting was so that you knew when to go. Come on!" She called, still flapping, determined to displace the snow all the way down to the dead grass below.

Clark shook his head and started moving his arms up and down in the blanket of white around him. At first, he felt kind of silly. He hadn't been lying when he told Chloe he knew how to make snow angels. It had been one of the first things Pete had taught him back during his first winter in Smallville. Other important lessons that January had included how to make snowballs and how to catch snowflakes on one's tongue. Lucy van Pelt might be a February snowflake eater but he was squarely in the January camp.

Still, the last time he'd made a snow angel, he'd been ten.

But Chloe was excited by their contest, so he'd placate her. He kept his arms flapping back and forth in their steady rhythm and started moving his legs also. He could feel the snow melting and seeping into his jeans. Being wet wasn't so much fun. The cold, though, he couldn't quite feel, at least not the way that made Chloe complain. Loudly. Sure, he knew the difference between hot and cold, could feel that much, but it wasn't like extreme temperatures bothered him. Hence the reason he'd come all the way to Colorado with nothing more than his red jacket.

He couldn't tell if Chloe were done with her angel yet so he kept smoothing down his own patch of snow with his arms and legs. As he did it, he felt himself burrow farther down into the snow, letting his head rest on it like it were a pillow. He let his palms sink into the white. The snow he could feel. It was soft against his skin and he sifted through the individual flakes, each one distinct in his grasp. It felt nice. Really nice. Like the guest bedroom at the mansion nice with its bed that had a mattress that cost more than his dad made in a year.

Why hadn't he'd lain in snow before?

He was busy burrowing into the snowfall when Chloe coughed above him. "Um, are you coming out any time soon because I need to see your angel for the judging? Of course, if you and your pile of snow want to be alone---"

Clark looked up at her and blushed. "No. I was just going. Sorry, it's just that it's really comfortable."

"Maybe if you're not susceptible to hypothermia."

"Well yeah, but it's just that it's nice, homey."

Chloe blinked and tilted her head at him. "Homey, huh?"

He nodded. Why was she looking at him funny? He had just said…oh god…that didn't just come out of his mouth, did it? He was up in a blur of movement so fast that Chloe didn't see it. He was halfway across the park's main lawn before her voice rang out.

"Damn it, Clark. That's not fair. Besides, you ruined the bottom of your snow angel, which I guess is yay for me since I win, but would you like to come back here? Now." Clark stopped and walked back to Chloe. She rolled her eyes at his stubbornness but held her tongue until he was back with her. "So, do you want to tell me what the 100 yard dash was about?

He looked down at the snow instead of at her. Gee gosh, the ground sure was interesting. For instance, it looked like there was a couple of acorns right at his feet, which was unusual for this time of year. Clark wondered if there was a squirrel around somewhere. "Not really."

"Clark, we have ten minutes left on the clock." Chloe reminded him, but her tone was soft and patient. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see that she'd moved closer but she hadn't made a move to try to get him to lift his head. She was always so good at letting him have his space. Lana had always pushed.

"Yeah, I noticed. You know, those penguins won't watch themselves."

"Cute Kentish cliché aside, I'll risk missing out on the Sphenisciformes."

He looked up at her and frowned. "The what?"

"Like I can't know the scientific name of something." She grinned. "Made you look and don't you dare look back at the ground or I will club you over the head with a rock."

Okay, maybe Chloe pushed a little, but only when he needed it. He sighed and stepped from side to side. "I just didn't mean to say that."

"That snow was comfortable?"

"That being in the snow was homey."

"Well if you have fond Christmas time memories of your Rockwellian family building a snow fort, by all means call it homey. Me and my dad will be sitting with the Swiss Miss inside."

He shuffled his feet a little slower, putting his energy into the deliberate steps. "I wasn't talking about Kansas homey."

Chloe's eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yeah oh."

She shrugged. "I don't see what the big deal is."

That was it. Being the curator for the Wall of Weird had officially fried Chloe's brain. Clark stopped shifting and planted his feet, opting to look her squarely in the eye. "The big deal is that I find terrain that reminds me of an alien planet 'homey.'"

"Uh-huh. I got that part. What I'm not getting is the bad in that."

"Alien planet, Chlo."

"And you're an alien so it's a matching set."

"Well if you think so highly of me---" He started, his tone sarcastic

"Oh please, don't be stupid. I'm just stating a fact. You're from Krypton the same way your dad was from Smallville and me and your mom are from Metropolis. It's totally understandable that you'd be comfortable with conditions that reminded you of where you were born. I mean, I still love gourmet coffee more than anything."

"But it's kind of weird. Other people don't want to take a nap in the snow."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "And most eight-year-olds don't have a cappuccino addiction. It is what is. You know, it's okay if there are some things about your home planet you like. Maybe not its apparent chief export of homicidal sociopaths, but I'm sure Krypton had something going for it."

"It's not my home."

"I swear sometimes dealing with you feels like banging my head into a brick wall." Although her words were harsh, Chloe's tone never wavered from being gentle. He liked that. Chloe was supposed to deal with things with snark. If she ever got too serious, he didn't know what he'd do. The strong and silent type was more his deal anyway.

She stepped forward and took his hands in hers. He felt the softness of her hands and he looked down at them. Somewhere along the way she'd taken off her gloves and he could feel how cold and stiff her fingers were. He frowned and was about to ask her how in the world she'd lost her gloves when he spied them poking out of her front pocket. So she'd stashed them, letting herself freeze just a bit so she could offer him skin to skin comfort. She followed his gaze down to their clasped hands and looked up at him smiling. "I forget how warm you are. Anyway, it's not your home in 'home sweet home' sense, but it's where you grew up at least a little bit. If you have a snippet of some memory of good times with your biological parents then lie down in the damn snow. Who cares?"

He felt her grip tighten around is hands. "I do. I know I've known about everything for five years so I should be used to it, but I don't think there's a day that goes by that I wish I hadn't been born there."

"I don't."

Clark snorted. "Yeah because you like having a pet alien."

She didn't move her hands but he definitely felt the pressure increase, if he'd been human, he was pretty sure it would have hurt. "Please, don't make me get a big rock." She sighed. "Alright follow me because I'm going to get prosaic here."

"Prosaic huh?"

"I have hidden depths. Anyway, I know you watch The Simpsons."

"You're giving me profound advice to resolve my identity crisis from Bart Simpson?"

"First of all, the writing staff graduated from Harvard. It's not exactly Met U, but you get the idea. Second, it's coming from Lisa."

"Well that's better."

"Shh. Listen. You started this with your habitual every thirty minute mope so let me get it out of your system." She loosened her grip on his hands and started to run her thumbs lightly over the back of his hands. "You remember the episode where Bart sells his soul?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then you'll remember the part in the end where Lisa buys it back for him and she tells him that some cultures believe that you aren't granted a soul but you have to earn it through thought and suffering and prayer."

"I mostly remember the part where he wasted it on dinosaur sponges."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "It was in there, trust me. Anyway, that's you. I mean, not literally because despite the super fun Catholic upbringing I have no clue about metaphysical theories. However, you wouldn't be the same person if you weren't from Krypton. Plus, if you want to go for the non-cartoon defense, there's a lot to be said for genetics."

"Yeah, Jor-El's real cuddly."

She snorted. "Granted the AI filling in for him can be an inconsiderate ass but you told me once you thought Lara was a good person and Jor-El couldn't have been all bad if he spent his life trying to make his world safe from ubercriminals." She sighed and leaned in closer to him. "If everything hadn't worked out the way it did, then I wouldn't have my best friend. Maybe that's a bit selfish of me, but I wouldn't want you to be anyone else or from anywhere else."

He stepped forward and leaned his forehead against hers. Clark hadn't noticed it, but they had moved closer to each other as she'd been talking. When he spoke, his voice was barely a whisper. "Best friend, huh?"

She nodded. "The bestest. What else would you be?"

He leaned down lower until his lips were brushing over hers. Clark was about to give her a kiss----Jimmy Olsen would just have to deal with a little less-than-friendly competition----when a shrill ringing assaulted his ears. Chloe jumped back and rummaged through her coat pocket for her cell phone.

Clark ground his teeth together. There was no way. It wasn't possible because then it would be the absolute worst timing in history, even worse than the time Napoleon decided it would be a good idea to invade Russia in winter.

"Hey Jimmy!" Chloe squeaked. "You know it's almost one, don't you? Yeah, I just ended up hanging out with Lois and Oliver at the gala. No, I used the press passes. Yeah, I needed two. Clark tagged along. Uh-huh. Well, I'm sorry you missed actual midnight with the whole archive surge. Yeah. Look, I need to go. I was sort of in the middle of something. No, I do miss you. No, I'm not mad. Love you too. Okay, bye." Chloe snapped the phone shut.

Clark was trying to determine what kind of meteor mutant power allowed Jimmy to interrupt all of his potentially romantic moments with Chloe. This ability was the most potent he'd ever faced. And the most annoying. "He's psychic. I just know it."

"Oh he is not." Chloe said. She looked down at her watch. "We've got five minutes and the zoo is only a three minute walk from here if we really hoof it."

"You don't want me to just run you there?"

"I don't think it's a good idea." Chloe frowned. "It's just there'd be exposure and stuff."

Right. She just didn't want him to take her in his arms. He could tell how uncomfortable she was by the way she wasn't making eye contact with him. "Chloe," he said, reaching up to sweep the bangs from her face. "We were sort of in the middle of something. The stupid birds can wait."

"No they can't. Those birds are depending on me. I made a commitment to them and I'm going to keep it. What kind of person would I be if I just two-timed my birds?"

Clearly this was no longer an ornithological discussion. Clark sighed. She'd never made a move on him the whole time he was dating Lana. He at least owed her and, by extension, Jimmy Olsen the same courtesy. "Okay, Chlo. Let's be true to your penguins."

"Deal." She said starting out in front of him.

He watched her as she went, cursing himself for waiting around for six years, for being arrogant enough to think she'd just wait for him for that long. Jimmy Olsen wasn't a slightly annoying wannabe photographer-cum-Chloe's boyfriend. He was penance.


	2. Chapter 2

"Clark, I know you're stronger than this. Come on. Push me up a little further." Chloe was already on his back with her legs wrapped around his wait. She'd insisted on scaling Mt. Kent in order to get a view of the penguin show. Apparently Chloe's definition of boundaries varied. It wasn't okay for him to take her hand and whisk her away at superspeed to the zoo. However, it was just fine for her to grab onto him like a jungle gym.

He was very confused.

Tightening his grip on her squirming legs enough to make sure she didn't slip but not tight enough to bruise her, he replied. "Well how much further up do you want to go here? Six, three is all I've got."

"Just a second," Chloe mumbled, pulling her right leg back and settling it in the crook of his elbow. With agility so flawless Clark would have believed that she was a monkey, she'd managed to maneuver herself to a sitting position on top of his shoulders. She wobbled a bit up there, almost falling before catching his hair and yanking herself into a steady balance.

"Ouch!" He complained, more out of pretense then anything else. Any other guy probably wouldn't appreciate having a hundred pounds of best friend yanking on his hair. In his case, of course, the elephant four cages down could yank on his locks all day long and they wouldn't budge, but it always paid to be cautious, to act normal, especially since Chloe was making such a sideshow out of them.

"Oh it didn't hurt, you big baby," She answered, her voice airy. If he didn't know better, he'd have sworn she was flirting with him. Of course, he did know better. She'd just had a meltdown about her love of penguins not ten minutes ago, not to mention the fact that Chloe really wasn't a flirter. However, since everyone in Denver was just assuming they were a normal couple, Chloe had apparently decided to play it up.

He played along as well. "It did to hurt! How would you like it if I pulled your hair?"

"And until about last year, my hair wasn't long enough to yank. If you're going to keep it shaggy, you're going to run into this problem. It's almost like a mullet or something back here. Don't you ever trim it?"

Clark rolled his eyes. Now she wanted to take this time to engage in the perfectly banal argument about his hair. Personally, he liked it long, but his mom and Chloe always complained about it. As far as his mom was concerned, he knew that it was the same maternal neatness that caused her to try cleaning his cheeks with a wet rag every time he came in from the fields. In Chloe's case, he actually suspected that it was all about her protesting too much. When she'd barged in on him in Metropolis during his illicit summer, he'd been wearing his hair so long that it curled down to his shoulders. The second he'd gotten off the elevator, he'd heard her heart speed up. It could have been chocked up to nervousness, but Chloe had never been skittish around him. In fact even now in their relationship it almost felt like she was the one with the superpowers. Besides, one of his other superior senses had told him quite clearly she'd been aroused.

So unruly dark hair turned her on, which in Chloe-logic meant she had to make fun of it. So be it. Complaining!Chloe was better than Weepy!Chloe.

"I do trim it, once every three months." That trick took a lot of mirrors, special angles, and strategically aimed heat vision too. She'd never seen it, but it was quite the show. It shouldn't have to be such a problem, but stupid Earth scissors sucked.

"Actually, that's not too bad. It still always looks like a mess."

"And surprisingly mucking out stalls is messy business." He shifted his weight from his right to his left foot. Chloe slipped a little on his shoulders and he could feel the denim of her jeans rub against him. He tried very hard not to think about exactly which part of Chloe was pressed against him. It would be in bad taste to set the penguins on fire.

"So you say." She shifted again and Clark started thinking about baseball. "Anyway," she said, bending over to peer down at his face. "What do you think of the little guys?"

Clark stared past her at the little collection of fake glaciers and clear ponds in front of them. On the snowy bank, three birds, identically attired in black and white penguin suits, were lying on their stomachs. A fourth bird was launching itself out of the water and was suspended in mid-air, little wings flapping ineffectually as it steadied itself for a landing. They were very cute.

Not that he could say that to her because he was a manly kind of guy and he didn't admit cuteness in public, although sometimes with his mom he'd call some of the tricks Shelby could do adorable. However, Chloe and Lois could never be allowed to know that or he'd never live it down.

He settled for a standard guy answer. "They're pretty cool, I guess."

"You guess!" Chloe exclaimed, flinging out her arms and upsetting her balance enough that she had to cling tightly to his neck with her thighs. "They're adorable. Look at the way the little guy just slid right back into the water on his belly. Isn't it the cutest thing ever?"

"Who are you and what have you done with my Chloe?"

"What do you mean?"

"You sound just like Lana did when she used to talk about Donatello. The Chloe Sullivan I know doesn't gush."

"I can surprise you. Though for the record, if Lois asked, this never happened. I just happen to have a soft spot for penguins. I have a stuffed penguin collection in my closet from when I was younger and everything."

"Huh." was Clark's only reply. Stuffed animals were a girl thing. The only stuffed animal he'd had growing up was an old teddy bear of his father's that had been stored in the attic. It hadn't lasted long. He'd given it one extra hard squeeze after a nightmare when he was six and the stuffing had just exploded out of him. After that, his parents had figured him and defenseless fluffy things weren't compatible.

"You can drop me now." Chloe added, interrupting his thoughts.

"No, it's fine. It's not like your heavy or anything."

"Gee, thanks." She chuckled a little. "How about I'd like to be down now?"

"All you had to do was ask, but what about the penguins?"

"I've gotten a pretty good look and we need to get going or we'll be late to our next engagement." Translation: you should run us to L.A. now.

"Fine," he said, putting his arms behind his head and wrapping them around Chloe's waist. He lifted her up off his shoulders and over his head and set her down in front of him.

She glared up and whispered, "Nice way to be inconspicuous."

He leaned down and spoke quietly in her ear. "It's not like I don't look like I could pick you up like that anyway." He dropped his voice lower as he said it and she flushed. "Are we done with the penguins now?"

"Just as long as you remember how much I love penguins we're good to go, but we might want to move out of a crowd. 'Now you see me, now you don't' isn't such a good trick to pull in front of a mob."

He nodded. "Agreed." He held out her hand to her to take and felt his heart stop for a few seconds, afraid that she was still too busy worrying about Jimmy Olsen to risk touching him. She hesitated and then took his hand, letting him lead her out of the zoo and into a nearby grove of trees that would be safe for superspeeding.

"Still, never say I didn't show you a good time." She said, grinning up at him.

"Yeah, falling on my butt is a memory I'll cherish forever."

"Admit it. You liked the penguins."

"You know," he said, as he ducked down under a low-hanging tree branch, "Chilly Willy used to be my favorite cartoon when I was little."

"See I told you no one can resist their charms."

"Well, I was really more in love with the South Pole I think. I always sort of liked snow. My mom has this story about how excited I was when it first snowed the winter I came. She said I ran right out the front door in just my pajamas and sat right down in it. It was probably a good thing I didn't have my speed back then or she never would have been able to get a coat on me, not that I needed it."

Chloe nodded. "I wish the Fortress were in the South Pole. I mean, it's still far too freezing in that stupid thing, but if you had a few cute penguins wandering around, it would make it better."

"Gee please allow me to get an Arctic pet to entertain you with. Would you like a polar bear perhaps?"

"I don't want to be eaten. Hey maybe you could get a seal or something."

Clark shook his head and wrapped his left arm around her. It was easier running another person if he had them tight in his grasp. He and Chloe had tried it just once with him holding just a hand and it had left her with about five times worse whiplash than the other way. "I think we're ready for L.A. because this pet conversation is going nowhere."

Chloe bit her lip and winked at him. "Maybe a wolf, something White Fangy since Shelby's no more for the snow than I am."

"I'm not hearing this anymore."

"I'm just saying or maybe a huskie if you get one of those sleds…"

The best part about having superspeed was the shift in perception that came with it. The world was always quiet when it moved that slowly and it was one of the few ways he knew of to shut Chloe up. He loved the girl, he really did, but he'd never known anyone who could talk as much as she did. It might bother him more if he didn't find it cute too.

Los Angeles, California ---- 11:15 PM (Pacific Standard Time)

"You look kind of disappointed." Chloe commented as he frowned down at the star in front of him.

He shoved his hands into his jacket's pockets and shuffled over to the next star. It belonged to Jack Benny, whoever the Hell that was. "It's not that. It's just I thought that Hollywood would be glitzier."

"And cleaner," Chloe added stepping around a pile of something lying in the crease between the sidewalk and a tourist shop wall. Clark really hoped it was just the remains of a half-eaten hamburger or some other food product. It was disturbingly furry. "I felt the same way."

"Felt?"

"Yeah. Lois and the general have been stationed everywhere you know. They had a year in a base in Southern Californian and the summer after sophomore year I took a trip out here."

"Really? What about your column?"

"You can send in articles over the internet now." She sighed, "I'm really sorry about that."

He shrugged. "I'm over that by now. I think you've definitely earned a second chance. If not for you and your willingness to freeze to death, Fine would have killed me and then everybody else would be speaking Kryptonian right now."

"Which, ironically enough, you don't speak." She pointed out, stepping nimbly over Don Knots's star.

"I could if I wanted to. It's all sort of back here somewhere," he said gesturing to his head.

"You know that shouldn't even be possible. You can't learn the pragmatics of language from an implant. It's why you can't learn a foreign language by watching TV. Trust me, I've been watching telenovelas for years and I can barely order a taco."

"'Pragmatics?'" He asked, planting a foot down on John Ritter's square.

"I'm taking psych this semester at Metropolis College. I'm just saying is all. You shouldn't be conversant in speaking Kryptonian. Makes no sense."

"I can shoot fire out of my eyes. We left making sense about thirty seven exits back. Besides, technically it's not like I never heard it. I was just really little the last time anyone spoke it to me. So…" he trailed off shrugging his shoulders.

She nodded. "Can you curse in it?"

He furrowed his brow for a second, trying to shift through everything the Fortress and the caves had downloaded him with so far. Surprisingly a few choice phrases popped up. It must have been Raya's idea. Dedicated lab assistant or not, she'd only been in her mid-twenties. Maybe she figured he'd have wanted the more bawdy side of his heritage too. He really couldn't see Lara or Jor-El doing it. His mom and dad had washed his mouth out with soap until he'd hit his last growth spurt and there was still the dreaded swear jar above the Kent fridge.

"Yeah. I could if I wanted to, but it's sort of like if you cursed in Gaelic. I mean, I'd know you weren't saying anything polite, but I wouldn't know exactly what it was."

"Oh, trust me, you can always tell by the tone."

"So you're saying…"

"There really is one universal phrase and it's not 'I come in peace' or whatever." She grinned up at him as they crossed the street and headed toward Grauman's. "Do you wanna share the wealth?"

"I am not teaching you to curse in Kryptonian."

"Why not?"

"Because it's wrong."

"You sound like your dad."

"Besides, you'll start using it around me and then you'll slip up and use it at the Planet and then what will you do when someone asks you what the Hell you're speaking."

"I dunno. I can always say it's from some random country. If I heard a little of it, I could even come up with a compatible language. I mean, it might sound Slavic or it could be very Asian. Five bucks says it guttural and Germanic." Just to spite her he rattled off some rapid fire Kryptonian. "Huh. Sounds kind of like Romanian."

"And how would you even know what Romanian sounds like?"

"Latin in catholic prep schools comes with the fun of romance introductory vocab, just a little sampler of French, Spanish, Romanian, and Italian to see the differences."

"Smallville High is public." He added, puzzled, as they made their way to the farthest corner of the theater's pavilion. They were staring down at the cemented foot and handprints of people who had been dead since the 1960s, but they were working their way to the more modern day stars.

"I had this whole other life before I got dragged out to the boonies."

"Catholic school, huh? So were there kilts. Please tell me there were kilts."

"No, there was a freaking pinafore, which we will never speak of again."

His rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Is there a picture?"

She looked up at him and he definitely had that vertigo sensation where he thought of her as the one with the superpowers, specifically his ability to fry people where they stood. "My dad has a few and they will never see the light of day as long as you live."

"That's a serious threat."

"I know."

"Still a Wittman's sampler of Romance languages when you were like twelve doesn't exactly prep you for hearing Romanian."

"Well there is that one Buffy episode."

"That explains a lot." He frowned. "So Romanian, huh?"

She shrugged, "More or less, some of whatever you said still came out a bit guttural so you owe me five bucks."

"Right. You're the one who still owes me a birthday present from last year."

"Well you're the one who's racked up more I.O.U.'s than an inveterate gambler." She shook her head and looked down at the footprints in front of her. "Ooh, Cary Grant. Have you ever seen 'His Girl Friday?' It's brilliant."

"Who?"

She rolled her eyes. "Cary Grant: Arsenic and Old Lace, Notorious, The Bishop's Wife." Off his blank look, she added, "Philistine."

"Sorry to like movies from this century."

"With nothing but explosions and car chases." She tsked to herself. "Men. I tell you, Jimmy's mostly the same way."

Great, Olsen again. Still, she'd always let him rant on about Lana so now he had to put up with hearing about Jimmy every five seconds. It was sort of fair, in a twisted evil revenge scenario way. "So, what's different about Jimmy?"

"He'll go with me to The Talon art house flicks. He likes to look at how directors use the camera even if it's moving pictures he appreciates artistic work."

"What's so hard? You turn it on, point, and shoot."

"As if the Academy would give out those shiny little gold statues for a job a trained monkey could do. Come on, Clark. It's not all about movies starring Jackie Chan and The Rock."

"Whatever." He said, looking at the footprints in front of him. "Hey, Marilyn Monroe. Cool."

"Now you've heard of someone," Chloe said hopping into the center of the square.

"What are you doing?"

"Everyone does this. You compare your feet and hands to famous people. I bet everyone compares themselves to Marilyn."

"You mean every girl."

"That's not very forward thinking of you, Clark. I bet there are a few guys that come here to compare too. I mean, West Hollywood is not that far down the road."

"What Hollywood?"

She shook her head and laughed. "How can anyone live so close to the Big Apricot and be so naïve is beyond me. Never mind. The answer would just blow your red state-raised mind."

"Uh-huh." He said leaning over to watch her as she positioned her feet over Marilyn's prints. "Hey, they fit pretty well. I mean especially considering you're wearing sneakers and not high heels."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Well I have small feet. They go with the whole being vertically challenged bit." She stepped back and pointed at a mystery square a few blocks over. "Your turn."

"Aw, Chlo, this is stupid."

"Now way, party-pooper. It was your idea to come to Hollywood in the first place and this is the big tradition. It's your turn." She got behind him, planted both hands on his shoulders and started pushing him forward. To be fair, she'd have better luck pushing on the Great Pyramids or Mount Rushmore. On the other hand, she had him totally whipped and could get him to do anything she asked, no matter how ridiculous. A night spent playing Santa definitely came to mind.

He rolled his eyes and shuffled forward to the square, knowing full well that Chloe wouldn't give up on this until he did it.

"So," she said as she walked behind him, still pushing. "You never told me what you said."

"Come again."

"The Kryptonian you rattled off. Dirty limerick?"

"Yeah like that's going to happen."

"What was it then?"

He frowned and concentrated for a second on the information in his head. He still really had no idea how any of the Kryptonian artifacts worked. It was usually enough that they did more or less what they were intended to do. One day, he really needed to sit down and learn how to use the crystals at the Fortress. Finally, the lines he recited came back to him and he did the translation to himself. "It's a nursery rhyme."

"Seriously?" He could feel her right eyebrow rise in disdain. "You could have said anything and that's what you chose?"

He shrugged and yet she still managed to keep her palms firmly planted on his back. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. It's something about a _lepore_ which is sort of like a rabbit if, you know, they had eight ears and thicker fur."

"Cool, I mean about the not-quite-bunny. The nursery rhyme from a twenty year old guy is still pretty lame." She said, finally coming to a halt behind him. "This one."

He looked down, read the name, and then looked back up at her after she'd come to stand beside him. "George Reeves. Any reason why this one?"

"The footprints are huge. I figured you had a small chance. Anybody you're sharing prints with would have had to have been freakishly tall."

"Gee thanks," he said, shuffling into the prints, which actually matched up with his really well. "Hey, it fits."

"Told you I have an eye for these things." She said, extending her hand to him.

"We're running back to Metropolis already?"

"No, doofus, we have fifteen minutes. There are some shops up the way I want to show you."

He frowned. He didn't trust the look in Chloe's eyes. It was the same look she had on her face when she convinced him and Pete in high school to break into someone's house in the search for truth, justice, and meteor freaks. "What kind of store?"

Clark Kent had never been more uncomfortable in his life and he'd spent time in an alien desert dimension. Chloe, on the other hand, looked like she was going to die of mirth right there. She was grinning a Cheshire cat grin and bouncing up and down with energy.

She turned back to him and impossibly the size of her grin doubled. "What do you think?"

"I think my mom is going to kill me."

"Why?" She asked sweetly, putting on a very good naïve act.

"Why?" He squeaked, holding up a "water pipe." "Chlo, do you have any idea what this is?"

"Well I have been in college for a year and a half, and I have made the rounds through a few frat parties. I mean, you can't be alone on a Saturday night all the time."

It was just a small dose of self-deprecating humor but Clark knew it wasn't true. After he and Lana had broken up and before the advent of Jimmy "The Infuriator" Olsen, he and she had spent every Friday and Saturday night together hanging out, and at least 75 of that time hadn't included meteor mutants or news stories. "I never thought of you as the frat type."

"I'm more the coffee shop and improv shows kind of girl, but I got bored the first few weeks. Besides, I love you and Lana both but watching you two mack or in your case avoid macking was not the highlight of my social calendar."

"Sorry."

She shrugged her shoulders and picked up a bright blue bong, made of blown glass that swirled in alternating patterns of cerulean and cobalt. "Heh, everyone gets sexiled once in a while. I mean, not literally of course, but it was a pretty good deal. At least I can stand you. I know tons of girl's whose roommates' significant others were just annoying mooches."

"I'm glad you can tolerate me so well."

"The wellest. I mean, here I am after the break up showing you a great time."

Clark rolled his eyes. Maybe it had been a little harder on Chloe than he thought having him always in the dorm for Lana those first few months. Of course, she knew better than anyone that nothing of any consequence had happened when he was over. Still, if Jimmy always showed up at the loft to make out with Chloe, he wouldn't want to be around either, unless it was to melt the other guy's sneakers. That would be fun.

"So," he said, picking up a tie-dye colored "water pipe" and eyeing it up and down, "how exactly did you know what kind of shops were here?"

"Lois and I were adventurous that summer. She had made a habit of sneaking out to L.A. once a month when the general was inspecting a base up near San Fran. She found all these neat shops and dragged me along for an education."

"Education?" Clark asked, his voice cracking just a little.

"Sure. Lois isn't just a lush you know. She's got all kinds of experience."

"Oh, I don't doubt that."

"It was nothing that bad. We had a few special brownies. Giggled at some of the sillier 'entertainment' items. It was nothing for Girls Gone Wild or Cops."

"Entertainment?"

"Did a parrot just fly in here? Of course entertainment." She set down the bong and dragged him over to another corner of the store where there were all kinds of boots. Well they weren't exactly the good old sturdy work boots he wore or the snow boots his mom had for blizzards. These boots were all made of shiny pleather for one thing. For another, most of them had heels so high a porn star probably couldn't walk in them, and they came up to the mid-thigh. His mom was going to have to wash his eyes out just for looking at them.

And then she was going to have to wash his brain out for thinking about what he'd do to Chloe while she wore them.

She held up one of the items in question---a crimson boot that laced up all the way to above the knee. "See, entertainment. I mean people actually come in here and buy these things. I told you how West Hollywood isn't too far from here, but I bet tourists buy them too and couples just looking to spice things up you know?"

Yes he did know. Maybe Chloe was secretly a sadist, or maybe she just wanted him to set something on fire before the night was over. "Uh yeah."

"Look at this thing." She said, practically pushing it into his face as if he didn't have the best vision on the planet. "It must have six inch heels. How could you even stand up in it?"

Clark was pretty sure standing up was not what someone did in those things. "I don't know, maybe when you try them out with Jimmy you'll let me know." Where had that come from?

She froze and the smile fell off her face. "Excuse me."

Right then would be the sensible time to shut the Hell up or alternately to beg Chloe for forgiveness. However, whatever stupid impulse had high-jacked his brain just kept talking. "I mean, after tonight you're going to have some lost time to make up for. He'll probably want some assurance that you didn't do anything with the back-up date. It's obvious he doesn't like me and trusts you even less around me. Why not bring back something to spice up the sex? Whip cream might be a little passé by now." Oh God, he did not just say that. She was going to eviscerate him, and he'd earned it.

When she spoke, her tone was clipped but her words came quickly, like they always did when she fought off tears. "You asshole. You jealous, self-absorbed jerk. I've been going out with Jimmy for months and you pick now when we're supposed to be having fun together to lay all this on me. If you didn't like him or me dating him, don't you think you could have brought it up any other way instead of humiliating me in front of half the store? And do you know how completely unfair it is for you to get snippy now after the six years of Lana Lang worship that I sat through? Waiting for…nevermind," She added, shaking her head. "I don't have to take this."

"Chlo, look I didn't mean it."

"And considering how far we are from Smallville and little red rocks I really buy that." She flung the boot down on the ground. The cashier turned toward them and started yelling something about calming down, but Chloe glared back at him and he shut up fast. Chloe turned and started stalking out the door.

He grabbed her right elbow and held it still. "Wait."

"Let go."

"No. Think about it. Where are you going to go? It's not like you can walk back to Metropolis."

"I'll get a hotel room and have Lois and Oliver come get me in the morning. Knowing a guy with his own jet has to come in handy for something. Now let go of me or I swear I'll pull my arm out of the socket." She yanked against him hard and he dropped her instantly. If she pulled hard enough, her arm wouldn't just dislocate, it would pop all the way off.

"Come on."

"Good night, Clark." Chloe said, slamming the door to the store behind her so hard that the glass shook.

He started to rush after her, struggling hard to keep to human speed, when the clerk's voice called out behind him. "Hey! She scuffed the boot. That means you bought them. That'll be ninety bucks."

Clark spun around and hurried to the register, yanking out a wad of bills from his wallet, infinitely grateful that the last thing he'd done before taking off for Metropolis had been to go to the ATM. He wouldn't have any spending money for the next month, but he'd do anything to get out of the store and to Chloe.

The clerk took the rumpled pile of cash and gestured to the pair of boots, which he'd collected and put in a box. "Might as well keep them. I can't sell them to anyone else and when she gets out of her snit, they'll really make for a lot of fun." He winked and it made Clark queasy or at least the way his stomach always did around too much Kryptonite.

He grabbed the boots and turned away from the noxious little man. "We're not really together. It's all a big misunderstanding, you see---"

And then he heard a scream so loud that even the clerk's head jerked up at the sound. It was Chloe. Still clutching the box and not giving a damn what the clerk saw, Clark sped out the door.

He found Chloe in the alleyway behind the store, struggling against the grip of a man pinning her and trying very hard not to spear herself on the knife held against her throat.

It was all a non-event. Clark saw the light glinting of the blade one instant and the next, he'd thrown the thug against the fall wall of the alley, delighting in the sound of bone crunching against brick. The guy was still breathing. He'd live, but recovery was going to be a bitch.

Chloe was still trembling and it took a few seconds before her brain processed what he'd done. To be honest, it took him a few seconds to process it too. He'd always moved fast but this time he'd been so quick that even his altered perception hadn't caught up with him. He'd just seen and acted.

Finally, Chloe blinked up at him. "Clark?"

He nodded, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she answered, her voice shaking and her eyes glimmering with welling tears. "He managed to put a hole in the collar of my coat."

"Well you should consider yourself lucky. I told you not to go out here alone."

"You also told me to buy a pair of fuck-me boots for my boyfriend. I don't listen to everything you say." She raised her chin to him and glared. Unfortunately as a Smallville alum, she recovered from trauma quickly. A miraculous rescue used to earn him an honorary exemption from the dog house. Tonight he was lucky if she'd offer him a biscuit. Why couldn't she be more of the damseling type?

"Chloe…I…oh screw it." He said, hugging her closely to him and at the same time planting what was decidedly not a friendly kiss on her lips. In fact, it was far more salacious than the one she'd given him in the DP's basement six months ago. At first, she'd resisted, but after a few seconds, she was kissing back with a passion he'd never seen her match. Especially not with Jimmy.

After a few seconds, she broke off from him and gasped in a few huge breaths. She stared up at him, and he expected her to be angry or to try and (ill-advisedly) slap him. She wasn't and she didn't. Instead she tightened her arms around his waist. "You're an idiot."

"So I've been told."

"You're a moron."

"Heard that one too."

"You're living proof that there is no intelligent life out there in the universe."

"That's a new one," he said, chuckling.

She spoke again and this time her voice broke a little when she did. "Do you know how long I waited for you to figure things out? To finally get over the Pink Princess? Six years. That's a pretty long time to devote to anybody, and then I try to get over you with Jimmy. He's a nice guy. He one of the sweetest guys I've ever known outside of you and Pete and he loves me, maybe not quite as much as photography, but I'm not sure I love you more than journalism so I can't really fault him for that."

His ears perked up. "You love me?"

"Yes, you big dumb farmboy. I love you and now I'm going to have to what? Break Jimmy's heart because apparently jealousy is the only thing that gets you to admit your real feelings? You suck."

"I do." He said leaning down to kiss her again.

"You suck big time and now we're going to owe Jimmy a new camera to make up for all of this."

"Okay, once my debt clears at The Shrunken Head, we'll work on buying the nicest camera ever."

"It'll have to have night vision capabilities."

"Right."

"And telephoto lenses."

"Of course."

"And a Zedmore shutter process."

"You made that one up."

She sniffled and looked up at him. "How'd you know about that last one?"

"We just watched Ghostbusters last night." He gave her hug, holding her tightly against him and ran his hand over her shoulders and back just to make sure nothing had been pierced. He could just x-ray her, but they weren't quite at that point in their relationship yet. "You scared me," he murmured into her hair.

"You pissed me off."

"Well I'll never do that again."

"Oh, you'll do it again, Clark. It's one of your abilities." She gave him a small smile and broke off the embrace. He was about to protest when she wrapped an arm around his waist and started pulling him out of the alleyway. "My watch says we have three minutes left. Let's say you use your MacGyver skills and sneak us into the Kodak Theater."

"Why?"

"Haven't you ever wanted to see where the Oscars take place? Come on, Clark, let's do the Hollywood thing right: Grauman's Chinese, Walk of Fame, averted mugging, and a red carpet bash."

"Minus the finery." He added, crossing the street with her.

"I've never been a fancy kind of girl."

It took them a few seconds to speed into the theater. The only hindrance had been finding a shady spot to duck into so it wouldn't look like two people had just teleported in the middle of the sidewalk. The theater was vast and overwhelming. He could see the rows of upper level balconies and the hundreds of red velvet seats lining the bottom floor. He'd managed to turn on the lights in the middle of his rush indoors and now the huge crystal chandeliers shone down on them. The shafts of light danced over Chloe hair, making it an even deeper gold than it usually was.

"It's amazing." She said, excitement coloring her tone.

"Yeah."

"Now that's the eloquence I've been looking for." Chloe added, smirking up at him. Just then her watch beeped out. "Midnight for the fourth time."

"You know what people do at midnight on New Year's Eve, don't you?"

She stood up on her tip toes and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "I sure do." Then she kissed him.

Clark leaned forward and let himself enjoy it. Chloe always had been a forward kind of girl. If she wanted to do the kissing (or at least initiate it) on New Year's, he'd let her. After an intense few minutes, he let her break off for breath and smiled down at her.

"Happy New Year, Clark."

"Fericit varstia niou, Chloe."

Epilogue

Metropolis, Kansas ----- January 3, 2007

"Clark!" Mr. Sullivan exclaimed, shaking the younger man's hand enthusiastically. "It's great to see you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Chloe has been so happy since you got back from the New Year's Eve party at the museum. You're all she's talked about. I mean, she talked about you tons before, but now she's so very smitten. It's cute."

"Um, thanks."

Mr. Sullivan's grip tightened and for the sake of his pride, Clark pretended to wince. "It's a heck of a lot cuter now than when you were in high school. This reciprocation thing is great. Please keep it up for the sake of my ulcers." He released his hand entirely and Clark made a show of shaking out his right hand.

"Sure, Mr. Sullivan."

"And Clark?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for pretending to be intimidated by me."

"No problem." He added, shifting his package from his left arm to his right arm. It's not that the present was heavy. It's just that it was an awkward shape and carrying it was cumbersome. "Is she upstairs?"

Mr. Sullivan nodded. "She is and you two will be so excited to be spending the remainder of your date here in our living room where I can see everything."

"Yes sir." Clark replied, starting up the stairs to retrieve Chloe.

"Oh by the way, 'It's a Wonderful Life' came on and I taped it for you. It's right on after the episode where Elizabeth Montgomery and some guy are crashed astronauts who turn out to be Adam and Eve."

Clark grinned down at him. "Great. I like both of those."

"Figured you would." Mr. Sullivan called back up as Clark rounded the top of the stairs and headed toward Chloe's room. He only had to knock twice before she actually showed up. "Took you long enough."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "We don't all have superspeed modes. So, what'd you bring me?"

He handed her the long white cardboard box and shifted nervously from foot to foot as she opened it. "Well you see The Shrunken Head has a 'you break it you bought it' clause, and it's not like I'm going to get any use out of them so…"

Chloe opened the box and held up one of the pleather boots. "Oh that's a shame because red is so your color. You know I can't exactly wear these tonight or my father will beat you to death with a shovel and then have a heart attack."

"He can't actually beat me to death with a shovel."

"But he can have a heart attack. Seriously, Clark, what am I going to do with these?"

He smirked at her. "My mom's out of town next weekend and she's taking Lois with her. There's no way we'd be interrupted."

"Now that statement has possibilities. Still," She added, setting the boot back in its box and slipping the incriminating evidence under her bed. "Green's more my color. Crimson's definitely more your style."


End file.
